Upon hearing Evan's furious scream, all the nobles immediately looked towards where Micheal and Evan were fighting. Looking at where Evan had previously been, all the nobles saw Michel there panting. Observing his state, all the nobles began to whisper among themselves.
"Do you think Caelthorn defeated Embercrown with another spell?"
"It must be some secret spell his father taught him."
"Psshhh, he must have used some cheating method to defeat Young Lord Embercrown, after all how can a weakling like him defeat the great Embercrown?"
Circulating aether throughout his body, John cringed as he heard the conversations between nobles, "Goodness, this ones laying it on a little too thick," he thought. Unlike most of the other nobles whose vision had been obscured, and didn't have sufficient aether sensing abilities. John, along with a select few geniuses, hadn't sensed any aether currents suggesting a second spell, meaning that the only way for Michael to have defeated Evan was to have attacked him physically.
Judging by the silhouettes he saw in the smoke cloud, John deduced that Michael used the smoke screen as a barrier to obscure Evan's vision, and then forcibly climbed the difference in stairs and pushed or punched him off the staircase.
After a short while of commotion, soon everybody went back to climbing. Now, John along with a few others who hadn't climbed yet due to various reasons, also walked over to the staircase and crossed its threshold.
Finding himself suddenly teleported next to multiple other nobles, John quickly ascended and blended into the crowd of nobles climbing. Now without the fear of being recognized, John began to ascend and feel the pressure created by the staircase.
The pressure was similar to the one he had experienced from his father and the other elite mages, but fell short compared to the one he had experienced from the King of the Celeste Kingdom.
As he slowly ascended, walking with the crowd, John looked up and saw that Michael was in the lead, along with a few others tagging closely behind. However after reaching the halfway point, John realized that slowly but surely nobles were stopping and being left behind. Soon the huge crowd that had surrounded him and thinned out to a few dozen nobles.
Looking ahead, Michael had slowed down considerably, but was extremely near the top, with the people tagging behind him already stopping at the 7/8th mark.
Observing the remaining nobles, John recognized another child similar to his age, but slightly older. It was Luke Embercrown, another member of the Embercrown family. Like his brother he was also a Brilliant Core, but his aptitude was slightly lower than his brother, along with his younger age, making him less well known than his brother.
"I'll have to mirror Luke's progress," thought John, "but I'll perform worse by a slight margin, this way people won't think that I'm holding back, but also believe that I'm just an extremely low tiered Brilliant Core. "
Soon, Luke stopped at the 7/8th mark of the staircase. While his talent was of the Brilliant Core, in order to withstand pressure one needed a strong mind as well as a well tempered core. Lacking time spent tempering his core, as well as a strong mental will, Luke was forced to stop at where many of the other older top tier Sharp Core prodigies stopped at.
"Alright, I should stop close to where I am then, this way people will notice and my threat level will be considerably lowered" thought John before pretending to struggle immensely before finally settling on the 13/16th mark of the staircase. This was where normal top tier Sharp Core mages would stop, but definitely not where a Brilliant Core should stop.
Soon, as anticipated, many nobles recognized John, and started gossiping. "Psst, do you see the son of Duke Verrien? I heard he's a brilliant core, but stopping there, although he's still a child it's still extremely worse than a normal Brilliant Core's progress."
"I know, I heard his family hasn't put much attention on him, Duke Verrien only named him John recently."
Unlike the adult nobles who knew what was going too far, the children and teenagers had no inhibitions when gossiping. Listening to their gossip via his ears, John was able to breathe a sigh of relief, as they all thought that he was just trash for a Brilliant Core level aptitude, not that he was holding back.
"This way, even if there are assassins and hostility from teachers, they'll be directed towards the likes of Evan, Michael, or Luke," thought John while waiting for the ascension to end.
However, unlike what he expected, before the timer ran out, commotion suddenly broke out amongst all the nobles near the end of the staircase.
"Look!! It's Michael, he's ascending to the top!" "Goodness, I heard that the pressure at the top is similar to that of a peak refined core image." "Indeed, for a top tier Sharp Core like Michael, it's an incredible feat to just be standing facing that kind of pressure."
Quickly looking up at the end of the staircase, John observed as Michael Caelthorn stepped up to the last step before fully ascending the staircase. The pressure there was so strong that as soon as Michael stepped onto the staircase, he instantly collapsed into a half kneeling posture, his body trembling as he struggled to get up.
"Please get up and ascend," thought John to himself, after all the more attention Michael drew, the less attention he would receive. All the nobles unconsciously held their breaths as Michael Caelthorn slowly got up trembling. Looking like he was being weighed down by huge rocks, Michael slowly raised his foot. Trembling he lost balance and fell onto the staircase.
Gasp, all the nobles gasped as they saw Michael fall. "It's over, there's no way he can get up and step across the staircase." Sounds of doubt spread throughout the nobles, there was no way, even John had given up hope, but Michael slowly but surely got up again and raised his foot.