Training

The God's Tournament was an event that began one week of in-game time after the game's release.

It was announced a little earlier to make sure everyone was aware of what would be happening.

6,400 players would be chosen and thrown into arenas that would have 100 players each.

The playable area would slowly shrink to the middle, forcing them to fight, and only one person could survive.

There were 64 arenas, so there would be 64 players coming out on top, and these 64 players would then face each other in a 1v1 bracket tournament.

Only one person would emerge on top and win the prize, with the prize being a mystery.

From the player leaderboard, 6,400 of the best players would be picked and made to play in this tournament.

In his previous life, Finn didn't play Second Life this early on, so he didn't participate in the tournament last time, but he had seen highlights of it.

He knew who was supposed to be the tournament's victor and what tactics people used to get into the top 64.

'Show those geezers what champion I have chosen.'

Loki wanted Finn to win this tournament because the more he came out on top, the angrier the other gods would become when they found out that he was contracted to Loki.

'With pleasure.'

Finn knew a lot about the tournament, so he planned to use his knowledge to win it.

He then frowned when he looked at his trending fight, which kept getting more popular.

"Hmm… I don't mind becoming famous in the future, but it will get annoying if people start recognizing me this early on."

Finn knew that he would get famous at some point, but he planned to reveal his abilities only when he knew he was strong enough to protect himself.

'You still have three days before the tournament begins. You need to use that time to train your skills and abilities so that you can become strong enough to not care about other players.'

"I know, but three days is nothing."

'It is not nothing. It's still three days, which will help you broaden your skills.'

After listening to Loki, Finn nodded. He knew that he had strong abilities, but he needed to train his skills in combat.

The present him was like a toothless wolf. He had the ability to overpower weak opponents, but against someone strong, he wouldn't be able to win without sacrifice.

After messaging James to tell him that he wouldn't be meeting up with them in the game and to tell the others too, he left the inn and took a carriage to the training center.

Upon entering a huge stone building, he heard some players already training by hitting wooden training dummies.

Finn didn't want to be bothered, so he paid ten silver coins for a private room that had all the necessary equipment inside.

He could stay there for as long as he wanted, but if he left the training center, he would have to pay again to use it.

Entering the room, Finn saw various weapons on the wall.

If a player tried to steal these weapons, he would have his head blown off by the game's AI, or, as Finn knew her, by the goddess Themis.

There were also ten training dummies that were better than the ones in the public space. They had magic runes carved into them, and they were all holding a wooden weapon.

When the player chose a level of difficulty and activated the dummies, they would start fighting against the player in the room.

This was a lot better than fighting the unmoving dummies in the public hall of the training center, and with this setup, Finn began to practice his assassinations and sword moves.

Loki would help him by electrocuting his body every time he made a mistake. This motivated Finn to get better faster and do his absolute best not to get zapped.

---

Two days later, Finn could be seen fighting the last dummy because the rest were on the ground. Currently, he had the dummies set on "expert" difficulty, which was his limit.

There were also "apocalyptic" and "impossible" difficulties, but he knew that he wouldn't be able to defeat those.

"HA! HA! Huff… Huff…"

Finn ended the fight with a horizontal slash, splitting the dummy in half.

He then plopped on the ground and started hungrily gulping the air.

Ten wooden training dummies laid all around him, split into pieces, but soon they were enveloped by light and repaired to their peak condition.

Finn had gotten a lot better after the two-day training since normally people would be satisfied with a good enough strike or block, but Loki refused "good enough."

Every time Finn performed a move and it wasn't perfect, he would electrocute him.

ZAP

"OW! What did I do wrong this time?! I defeated all of them, and they were all "extreme" difficulty, so what is the problem?"

He shouted, and if other people saw Finn, they would think that he was a crazy person, talking to himself.

'You prolonged the last fight by 10 seconds, which was unnecessary time loss. If you were in a war, these 10 seconds could have cost you your life. If you didn't dodge by jumping back but parried the strike instead, you would have saved those 10 seconds.'

Finn wanted to refute Loki, but he knew that Loki was right.

The last dummy had a great sword, and since it was the last one remaining, Finn's stamina was at its limit, and he thought that blocking the strike would hurt his arm.

He didn't want to risk feeling pain and just went for the safer approach of dodging the strike entirely.

"But I only did it because I knew I wasn't in a war and that dummy was the last one remain- BZZzzZZZzZ"

Loki didn't let Finn finish his sentence and just mercilessly electrocuted him.

'Talk back, get zapped. That's the number one rule.'

"Fucking god of a bas- BZZzzZZZZZZzzzz AAAAARRGGHH!"

Before Finn could finish cursing Loki, he received another shock that was a lot bigger this time.

'If you have the energy to curse me, then use that energy to train more.'

"I am sorry… Anyway, we are done here."

Finn had already used up two days, and he had only one more before the tournament began, so he planned to use this time to create equipment for himself.

After doing nothing but training, the other players overleveled him, and he became 56th on the leaderboard.

Finn didn't mind as much as he thought he would, because he wanted to play Second Life mainly to have fun and not become a leveling machine.

Also, being at the highest level didn't mean being the strongest. Levels only gave one attribute point, so if a player had good skills, he could beat someone who was a higher level than him.

Of course, not by too much, because a fist fight between someone with 30 strength and someone with 10 strength would end in a massacre, good skills or not.

The tournament would take the 6,400 strongest people, so it's not like he wouldn't be accepted anyway.

With a flick of his fingers, his clothes became clean. This was one of the magic functions in the training centers, and it was to ensure that players didn't have to prepare extra clothes to wear after their training.

Finn also put on his black mask and left the training center.

Over the previous two days, the hype about him was slowly dying out, but he didn't want to risk getting recognized and jumped by a bunch of players, so he always wore a mask.

The bounty on his head was pretty large at this point, and if he were spotted walking in this city, there would be a lot of people who would sell this information and make his life a living hell.

He went to the Royal Emporium to go buy some materials for the things he would be creating, and when he entered, he was brought once again to Nora's office.

"Long time no see, sir. Do you want some tea in the cup, or should I just pour it on myself?"

At first, Nora gave off a professional, stoic aura, but the more Finn got to know her, the more she started to show her true personality, which was her being playful.

"…In the cup, please, and I came to buy some materials since I will be making myself some armor."

Finn wanted to make himself new armor and new daggers because his old ones were on the verge of breaking apart.

He had already decided to use the Diabolium he had found in the Kobold dungeon for it, so he only needed to buy some materials for the armor.

The hide from the moonlight wolves that he still had would be used for the armor, but he needed other leathers to use as strings or handles for the daggers.

He also wanted to make his clothes black again since the white color of the moonlight wolf hide would just give him away.

Nora listened to him and wrote everything down. She then let her assistant bring in the leather of a Midnight stalker.

It was a monster that looked like a puma, but it was twice as big and very dangerous to meet at night.

It was fully black, and it hunted during the night, where it would blend into the surroundings. It would stalk its prey before jumping on it and killing it, thus its name, Midnight stalker.

The hide itself was very tough, and it had the perfect color that Finn wanted, so he immediately bought it.

He also bought a simple white shirt that he planned to customize.

It was pretty expensive, and Finn's coins were slowly starting to disappear.

'I need to start hunting monsters to get some more money… I thought fifty gold was a lot, but the more I spend, the more I realize that if you want to become strong, you need money.'

Nora stopped Finn just as he was about to leave while considering where he would make his equipment.

"Wait sir! Since we have become quite acquainted with each other, you can use our company's workshop."

She smiled and winked at Finn, but he didn't even notice her playful wink as he patted her shoulder with a teeth-showing smile.

"Thank you! That's a big help!"

"…Ah yeah… no problem…"

Loki, who was watching from the sidelines, thought that with how handsome Finn was, Nora was probably trying to shoot her shot, but since Finn didn't even think of her in that way and only thought of her as a business partner, her shot horribly missed.

'You dense idiot…'