Sam's hand is in a partial fusion mode with wind element as he moved his pen.

His opponent, actually the second fastest finisher who wanted to become Sam's opponent is trying to his best to add more runes to the runic barrier, but just looking at the speed, Sam is going, he is cutting it really close.

At that moment, a third person came out of his own runic barrier and joined in with the second to make it difficult for Sam.

They thought both of them working together will give them an edge. However, they realized the situation... remained exactly the same. They are cutting it really close. Sam is clearing the runes just as fast as they are making them.

Their lead is just a few runes.

When the fourth opponent came in and joined, they finally saw a change in expression in Sam's face. Until now, he has been doing it with one hand, but with this new added opponent, he had to work with both of his hands.

Once again... they are cutting it really close.

The spectating elders outside and even the Viswa karma student who finished it first, looked at Sam and his three opponents with a weird expression.

Even though it is these three people that are messing with Sam, for some reason, weirdly they felt that Sam might be the one playing around with them.

When the fifth person came out of the runic barrier, he is unable to join in these people.

The saying too many cooks spoil the broth seemed to be apt for this situation. Even that guy knew that if he intervened, he might just make this unnecessarily complicated with no positive results.

So, instead he looked at the rest of the opponents and focused on one particular woman. She is from Sanatan region. Not from Viswa Karma's academy, instead she is from Vinayaka's academy. A god known for his wisdom, intelligence and knowledge along with a level of battle expertise.

He has other names which is not relevant at the moment.

She is one of the tough opponents in the top sixteen, so this fifth guy went after her. When she saw this guy coming at her, she immediately increased her speed of solving the runes.

Just one look and anyone can see that she was obviously faking before. She deliberately underperformed a bit. To ensure that she doesn't become a target. But she became one anyway. Either that guy has a keen perception or he did his homework before the test.

When she noticed that sixth person is also out, she gritted her teeth and took out another pen, working with both of them at the same time.

*BOOM*

As her inscriptions merged with the barrier, it exploded. Particularly at the spot where these guys were trying to interfere.

That threw the sixth guy away and made him fall on the runic barrier of a different opponent. The fifth guy gulped nervously and stepped back.

*BUZZ* *BUZZ* *BUZZ*

Within the next minute, she broke through her barrier and looked at these two hatefully.

But she also didn't go after anyone else. These two still didn't learn their lesson and went after someone else.

Like this, only two people were left. One is Sam and the other is some random guy who wouldn't matter anymore.

Only then did the sabotage stop.

Sam finished at fourteenth place, while the fifteenth finished right after. Now, Sam has the right to issue the challenge.

"The same thing that we did now. A runic barrier. You create one in fifteen minutes, I will do the same. Then we will break through, whoever comes first wins.

"

As one might expect, the challenge didn't take much time and it was very predictable. With the expertise Sam showed many people with some reasonable perception guessed what will happen and it did.

He won.

The fourteen people moved to the next round.

The time, the challenge is different. There are fourteen rings set up in the area. All fourteen of them have a puppet inside. They need to get on a ring and fight with the puppet. They can once again sabotage each other.

If someone leaves the ring before the puppet is defeated, they will be disqualified automatically, without even the right to challenge the second last place.

In this round, it seemed like people finally got some sense into their numb skulls. When someone finished their challenge first, they didn't go after Sam. They noticed in the first two rounds, that he is capable of finishing this much faster.

But he is deliberately staying in the last positions.

They also wanted to test this theory and left him alone. Their thoughts turned out to be true. Sam came in second last place once again and he can issue another challenge. He chose a

challenge similar to the test.

They will step in the ring.

Whoever pushes the other out of the ring wins. Time limit is fifteen minutes. If both are inside the ring after fifteen minutes, then they will extend the time by another fifteen. If both of them are inside after that too, the last place guy, the challenger will take the victory.

The challenger felt a bit of hope when he heard the last line.

He doesn't have to beat Sam.

He just needs to stay for thirty minutes and he will win.

With those thoughts he stepped into the ring and...

*BOOM*

Three minutes later, he was sent flying out of the ring, with a huge hole in his chest.

They moved to the fourth floor.

One more test focused on their skills, but not something that couldn't be done by any of them. Sam came in thirteenth and challenged the last guy once again. He destroyed him and moved

forward.

By now, even the moron amongst the morons could understand what this whole thing is actually about. Each round was never about the skill. It is just to decide who among them will

be set up to duel.

And whoever wins moved forward.

So, this is basically fifteen rounds of inscription duels between these candidates. The extra tests are just to give everyone a strategic edge against their opponents. Same goes for the sabotage and other perks.

If one shines too much, they will be targeted and sabotaged making them face the risk of

elimination.

If one doesn't shine at all... well they will be in duels anyway.

So, they need to use all these variables and ensure they can move to the next round. The more rounds are completed and the more they are eliminated, it would become less of a strategic contest and becomes a contest of skill.

Of course, knowing all this, Sam can only disrupt it and make it boring. None of the skills of others can shine while he is here.

He is determined to use the format to his own advantage and crush every single one of them one by one and his plan worked successfully.

On the thirteenth floor, when Sam eliminated the thirteenth candidate, only three of them

left.

Sam, the candidate from the Viswa Karma academy and the candidate from the Vinayaka

academy.

Those two exchanged a look as they walked to the next floor.

Sam knew, they are going to plan something now. Otherwise, they will be next. Even if they

trust their own ability to deal with Sam individually in the fifteenth floor, they cannot take the

chance.

What if... what if Sam pulls off another card?

What if they failed?

So, they tacitly agreed to team up.

In this round, as soon as they arrived in the fourteenth floor, they were transported into the middle of three different formations. These are pure formations made of nodes and they have several complex layers and structures built into it.

Their goal is to break out of that formation. Whoever comes first, wins.

Sam felt that this could be the first actual difficult test in this tower. The rest of the tests are

just some added variables, while this one... whoever comes first actually might have a better chance to win the whole finale.

The formation is indeed a work of art and it seemed like it is made with at least a beginner third grade student in mind. Which means, it is a lot more powerful than them. They cannot

just brute force it.

They have to understand the nodes, destroy them one by one and then destroy the formation

after that.

However, Sam is not concerned. Because in the formation test he had most of his senses blocked, including his observation ability and energy vision.

But now, he doesn't have any restrictions and especially not on his resources.

He can use whatever he wants as long as it is not some cheat like ability or tool.

As soon as the test began, he activated his observation ability through one of the identifiable

nodes. Then several ink vials fell out of his storage and it obeyed his commands.

Runes, thousands of them are formed with just a mere thought and they arrayed together with

perfect sync.

And Sam was stuck in that state for the next fifteen minutes.

Meanwhile, the other two candidates ignored him and were hard at work.

*CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK*

As they destroyed one node after another in matter of minutes, they progressed fast and

smooth, leaving Sam behind.

Until the fifteen minute mark.

*BUZZ*

Sam's formation vibrated along with the runes which suddenly became stagnant and just like

that...

His formation collapsed.

Surprising the other two, he broke through first and those two are bound to fight it out among

themselves whether they want it or not.