Tournament (6)

Sadly for Ivan there just wasn't any balance. The stat difference was just to high. Besides that the longer they fought the clearer it became to him, that not only were their strength to different, his close combat skills too were worse than hers.

As such even without her having to cast any skills he was slowly pushed back, until finally he was no longer able to properly block a staff strike of her, which would have broken his right sword bearing arm.

Swiftly switching his sword over to his other hand he continued fighting, but even though he was able to use both his hands equal, this didn't change the fact that he was weaker. As such the same thing happened again.

"I give up.", he could only give up.

"The winner is Miss. Tang.", the referee announced under the cheers of the crowd.

Then the both of them once again shook hands.

"You aren't bad.", with these words Miss. Tang left the stage, leaving behind a speechless Ivan and referee. Never before in the tournament had they heard Miss. Tang say one word more than strictly necessary.

After that the tournament continued and unsurprisingly the final winner was Miss. Tang. What surprised Ivan was that the one who got second place was the second place from his group. As such many thought that Ivan should be the second place. Sadly he had to fight against Miss. Tang before that and as such was unable to advance to the finals.

After the rewards were distributed the newcomer tournament ended and the ones for normal members started.

It was interesting to watch the different strategies employed, but often times the difference in strength was to big and the one, he thought had the better strategy still lost miserably.

Of course there was still a lot to learn from this fight, since it was likely that such a situation could be encountered in the world. As such having some strategies that could be used against stronger opponents was definitely a must have.

After this tournament had concluded it was then time for the most hyped one, which was the elder tournament.

The elder tournament was different from the normal tournament, since it wouldn't be of much help for studying techniques and strategies. Their level were just to high, which made it next to impossible to really discern anything. But still the entertainment value of it was much higher, so most people loved to watch this part of the day.

For Ivan this tournament was even more interesting, since it would be his first time seeing his mentor fight. He really wondered how strong he was.

This time the elder tournament could offer the same spectacular views as the ones in the years before until finally the winner was decided which was Ivan's mentor.

Ivan didn't even know how he got most of his wins, but he was clear that his mentor was much stronger than he had thought. But seeing this strength only got him wondering whether he too would be able to reach such highs. And what about the owner of the Herb Garden? Ivan wasn't sure, but it was likely that he should be much, much stronger than his mentor. He knew that there seemed to be a maximum strength that could be archived, which was around level one thousand, but why did he get the feeling that there was something above it? And what about the worlds outside of the system worlds, that the lady at school had spoken about?

For the first time Ivan found another goal, besides finding out who he was before his reset. And that was to be strong enough to be able to go out there and explore, and when he came back there would be a warm family waiting for him. The last thing was something he had slowly realized while spending time with his daughter. A man could be as strong as he want's, but a family was still something that was a necessity.

Deep in thought about his future he left the arena, when a middle aged man in a black suit approached him.

"Mister Hope?"

"Yes?", Ivan asked in surprise.

"Mylady has send you to give you this.", the man bowed and presented a simple but elegant wooden chest to him. The chest was the size of a book and created a splendid contrast with the white gloves of the man, since the wood it was made of was ink black.

"Your lady?", Ivan asked, since he didn't know who would send him such an extravagant gift.

"My lady is Miss. Tang.", the man explained with a friendly smile, while covertly checking out the young man before him. Never before had his lady gifted any man anything, besides her family members, so it couldn't help that he would be curious about the recipient of this gift. He then continued with his explanation, "I am not sure, what is in it, but Mylady told me to give it to you and tell you that there is a letter inside, that would explain everything to you."

Ivan hesitated for a bit. He didn't have enough contact with Miss. Tang, for her to gift him anything, but it wasn't like he could reject it. If he did, he wasn't sure how, but he was sure that he would be in deep shit.

"Then I have to thank Miss. Tang.", he responded and took the chest, which was heavier than it looked.

"A good day then, Mister Hope.", the man said his goodbye after having fulfilled his job of delivering the chest and turned around to leave.

"Goodbye."

After the man had left, he then took a closer look at the chest, but there wasn't much to see. It was entirely made from one piece of that black wood, with no gap between the lid and the body. There was only a silver lock that he had seen before. It was keyed to ones system account and could only be opened by the intended person.