After making this resolution he then took a look at the clock and saw that it was already late.

*Guess I don't have time to get used to my new stats today. This is gonna suck tomorrow. But if I don't sleep it will be even worse.*

Since he didn't have the time to get used to his newfound strength, he would surely have some problems fighting in the tournament tomorrow, but sadly there was nothing he could do about it.

The next morning he woke up and got ready. In the cafeteria everyone talked about the tournament today. It was the annual tournament that everyone in the Slavers Alliance had to partic.i.p.ate in.

Of course the newcomer tournament was only a small part of it, since there would only be about 200 people partic.i.p.ating, each of which was a member for less than one year. Most people had never met these newcomers so the focus on this part of the tournament was small for most people. The main focus laid on the elders tournament where the elders of the Alliance would contest against each others.

Ivan had never really inquired about the structure of the Alliance but he had heard that it was lead by the Head, who was rumored to have maxed out his stats. n.o.body knew why, but it seemed impossible to get the stats above 1000. Of course there were methods to still increase it, but the main stats wouldn't go higher. According to some sociologists that was the main reason why this realm had such a stable structure. After all each empire had maxed out subordinates which enabled them to enforce their laws.

Below the Head was the grand elder which was responsible for the day to day operations of the Alliance. Below that were a mult.i.tude of elders which were the leaders of the different departments, as well as the important fighters of the Alliance. And while the Head and the Grand Elder wouldn't partic.i.p.ate in the tournament the elders would. Since most of them had high stats and skills it would be a great experience to witness them fighting against each other.

"So whom do you think will win?"

"I think Elder van Bergen has a good chance to win this time."

When Ivan overheard the conversation of a couple sitting at the table next to him, he was surprised to hear a familiar name. *Mentor is an elder? And from their words he seemed to be one of the strongest.*

He had never asked his mentor what his rank and role was, so hearing that he was an elder came at quite a surprise. *I wonder what his role is. After all he always seems to have a lot of time.* He had never seen his mentor being pressed for time. It didn't matter when, but he always appeared to be relaxed and carefree.

After eating he went towards the a.s.sembly point for the newcomers. When he arrived there, there were already many unfamiliar faces, that like him were waiting for the start of the tournament.

But there were some familiar faces to too. To be exact it were the two man who had entered the dungeon with him, when he had first entered the Alliance. Since they weren't really familiar with each other, he didn't went over to greet them but instead observed the crowd.

Most of the looked nervous. They did some last minute preparations, by either checking their prepared pills or their weapons. Some even practiced some combat skills, which he thought was the stupidest thing one could do. Not only was it to late now to gain anything, but they would even show their potential opponents their skills and as such would be giving up a small advantage they may have had, if they kept them secret.

The ones Ivan found the most dangerous were these that had sat down quietly and either observed the others or meditated. To him this was a sign of experience, which was much more dangerous than pure strength.

He then followed their example and sat down too.

He hadn't meditated for long, when an commotion ripped him out of it. He opened his eyes and looked towards the source of the noise. There an ice cold woman slowly made her way into the crowd. It was the woman who had went into the dungeon too. Not knowing why she would create such an commotion he listened to the conversations around him.

"That is Tang Lin, did you know that she has already reached level 400 and I heard that her pet S ranked."

"Really? How did she manage that? Is she that talented?"

The other laughed softly, "Haha, no talent alone would be enough for that. While it is true that she is truly talented I heard that it is mostly because her grandfather pampers her a lot."

"Her grandfather?"

"Yes. Her grandfather is the Grand Elder. So ever since she has entered she has gotten a lot of resources from him."

"Wow, she really is lucky.", the other said with envy clearly recognizable in his voice.

*So she is the granddaughter of the Grand Elder. No wonder she had such a great staff when we were in the dungeon.*

After that, seeing that it wasn't really something that interesting, he went back to mediation.

When it was time for the tournament to start a middle aged man entered the room.

"Everyone here?", he asked and without waiting for an answer then continued, "I will now tell you the rules for this tournament, so you better listen carefully, because breaking them means that you will disqualified."

"There aren't many rules, since all of you will be wearing an medallion that will protect your life, so you can battle to your fullest. The fight will only end if the System decides that one of you has been killed or is unable to continue the fight. The medallion will protect you from any injury, but it will apply the corresponding damage. That means, that if you would lose an arm from an attack, it will stop you from using this arm during the rest of the fight."