Tournament preparation
The upcoming tournament was supposed to happen a week after the enrolling process closed. Oliver and I found out that we were extremely lucky, as the day we applied was among the last days when this was still possible. Meaning that we had to cram as much training as possible during that time.
The atmosphere when I was with Oliver shifted, and he appeared to trust me more, as he was mentioning his opinion more often, compared to the neutral stance he had been taking until now.
Although I hadn't seen a new tehnique from him, my swordsmanship was close to reaching 100% proficiency, which wasn't really that surprising, considering the fact that this art was common and was supposed to be relatively easy to learn. Oliver told me that I would get a specific trait at complete mastery, but I didn't press on, wanting to see things for myself.
Luckily, two days before the tournament, I completed the art during a sparring session with him.
[100% proficiency on [basic swordsmanship] reached]
[Receiving trait: [sword apprentice]]
[Sword apprentice]
[When using a sword as a weapon, strength, agility and stamina are boosted by 5%]
While not seemingly strong, this power of this trait was scaling along with yours. It can become a significant benefit on a person with high stats. Talking about stats, I checked my status window to see how was I doing.
[Name: William Adams
Age:15
Rank:G+
Skills:N/A
Traits:Sword apprentice(F)
Arts:N/A
Abilities:Synchronization(EX)
Strength: 4/100(G+)(+86)
Agility: 32/100(G+)(+107)
Stamina:20/100(G+)(+89)
Mana: 50/50
Mana core:G
Intelligence:S
Catalogue[1]]
The progress is real! Unsurprisingly, the results of my non stop training were very good. My grade went up by one rank, along with my stats. Although I haven't found a use for mana yet, I will ask Oliver about it after the tournament, as we both have decided to relax the day before the competition. Grabbing a sword to check how the trait worked, I checked my status screen one again.
Name: William Adams
Age:15
Rank:G+
Skills:N/A
Traits:Sword apprentice(F)
Arts:N/A
Abilities:Synchronization(EX)
Strength: 9/100(G+)
Agility: 38/100(G+)
Stamina:26/100(G+)
Mana: 50/50
Mana core:G
Intelligence:S
Temporary benefits:
Strength +5(sword apprentice)
Agility +6(sword apprentice)
Stamina +6(sword apprentice)
Catalogue[1]]
It seems that the upgrades are rounded down, and are added directly to my stats. It already looks promising, as in the future it will be much harder to get stats. Even though most people have this trait, it feels special to me. Maybe because it was my first?
During the day off, I didn't meet up with Oliver as I wanted to relax. It was the first time since my transmigration when there was no urgent matter to attend to, when I could do whatever I wanted.
I used this time for a bit of introspection. With the nonstop action in my new life, time to think about my situation was very scarce. It seemed that I have somewhat accepted the ridiculousness of my situation, as the only thing left for me to do was to adapt and survive. It looked like there was a very dangerous path ahead of me, based on the contents of the letter I read in my first day, but thinking about it will dampen my mood and not bring any real benefit. I had no answers, so it was useless to let myself be overwhelmed with questions. When was the last time I used my real name? Did my parents mourn me? Of course, that sounds completely reasonable, but I didn't have anyone whom I was truly close to. The world kept going and there was nothing I could do to stop it. This applied both in my past world and now.
I spent the day relaxing and sleeping, gathering energy and preparing for the tournament the next day. I wanted to be at my best. Although, out of nowhere, something popped out in my mind. Why test the rank of the participants at least a week before the actual competition? What if other people like me had ranked up in this week they had given us? Maybe the competition already started when we filled out that forms. Not a 1v1 tournament, but one where the winners were those who became the strongest in the shortest amount of time possible. That was one of the only conclusions I could come up with.
I decided to discard those useless thoughts after a while and completely let free of my worries. Tomorrow was going to be a very important day.