The Copy Mage

The 7 final students, made up of Damian, his friends and two other students walked up to the staircase, all carrying expressions of anticipation and excitement.

It was clear that the two other students were feeling the pressure of being the last batch of students to take part in the second round, along with having to do so beside 5 of the strongest students there were.

Along with that, there was also a large audience and usually, by the end of the second round, most people would have gotten bored, but this time, most stuck around, wanting to see what Damian and his friends would be capable of.

As soon as they were permitted to begin climbing the stairs, they all stepped onto the first step without any hesitation. 

Even before they placed their foot on the step, they began to feel the pressure on their body and the pressure they all felt varied, but had the same effect, since it was based on the individual's own power.

It would only be recognised by the academy that one made a step when they had both feet on the step and managed to stand there for a few seconds, so they quickly got onto the first step with their other foot.

They stood there and looked over at each other with competitive smiles on their faces, as they felt as though the pressure on the first step was tough, but still quite easy to handle.

"Keep up losers," taunted Milo, who was the first to move onto the second step.

Usually after reaching the first step, one would stop to allow themselves to become accustomed to the pressure and also mentally prepare themselves for the next step. There wasn't any time limit, so there was no need to rush, but Milo was hungry and unwilling to lose the bet, while he also wanted to show off.

He looked back with a gloating expression and impressively seemed to be able to quite easily handle the pressure of the second step, but he was quickly followed up by his friends.

"We won't lose to you,"

"Yeah, and anything you can do, we can one up,"

Julia was quiet like usual, while Matilda, Cole and Milo began bickering between themselves, all wanting to come above the others and not lose the bet.

However, they hadn't noticed that Damian was no longer on the second step with them and that he had been silent the entire time, focused on climbing the mysterious staircase.

"If you guys don't shut up and start climbing, none of you will come out on top," muttered Julia as she made her way onto the third step, leaving the three loudmouths on the second step.

The ones that appeared to be the most competitive had been left in the dust by Damian and even Julia, as they all focused and climbed onto the third step. It felt as though each time they went up one of the large steps, the pressure would double, but that didn't seem to be affecting Damian much.

It was a test of one's willpower so no matter how strong one was, that didn't matter, which was why they all couldn't help but be impressed by Damian who was already on the fourth step and was making his way onto the next.

He was already on track to beat the highest score that had been achieved in the second round by all the students, and his expression still remained calm, making it seem as though he was yet to struggle.

After all the intense training he endured that tempered his already tough willpower, along with his ambition, drive and determination, he was like an unstoppable bulldozer that continued climbing upwards.

He would spend only a few seconds climbing each of the large steps and didn't stop making progress until he reached the sixth step, which was already an incredible feat.

Meanwhile, the rest of his friends had only just begun making their way onto the fifth step, and the other two students were still on the first step and struggling to make it onto the second step.

Watching, all the students and elders that were present couldn't help but be amazed by how quickly Damian had been able to get up 6 steps, while the record in the academy was the eighth step, which had set by Darren.

That record had also been matched by Larry's younger brother and from watching them, it became known that the jump from the eighth to the ninth step was one that was seemingly impossible.

It had supposedly never been done before, but from the rate that Damian was climbing the stairs and the impressive feats he had been able to pull off, maybe he might be able to do it.

"How did he climb these stairs so quickly? Is Damian even human?" mumbled Milo to himself.

"Who knows, but he seems to have the strongest willpower out of all of us," said Julia. However, despite her words that made it appear as though she had given up on competing with him, her eyes were burning with the desire to surpass him.

Damian's other friends also had the same look in their eyes and surprisingly all experienced a sudden increase in the speed at which they were climbing the steps.

A few minutes later, they finally caught up to Damian who hadn't moved from the sixth step and had even sat down to cultivate and benefit from the pressure of the sixth step.

Getting onto that step had been very difficult for Damian and his friends, while from their experiences, they gathered and the third and sixth steps were the hardest to get onto.

Which led them to believe that the ninth step would also be hard and getting any higher than they already were would be very difficult.

Copying what Damian was doing, they also began cultivating, and getting accustomed to the pressure, while also benefiting from it. They usually spent a short while on each step, but this time, they had spent so long on the sixth step that students were started to become restless.