Chapter 457: Annoyed For Some Reason

“God dammit!” Julius heard from Christina as she picked herself up from the ground.

It had been two days since he had evolved his soul for the second time. In those couple of days, he had gone with his friends to the tournament site, where he officially signed up. They were right, it had been swamped. He could not have gotten out of there faster.

The tournament would begin in a couple of days, and all of them were trying to improve as much as possible before it started. Julius was curious what the first stage would be, but it apparently changed each year and was only revealed on the day of, to prevent people from preparing for it.

He wasn’t too worried. From what he heard, it was a stage designed to weed out the weaker participants and create a pleasant atmosphere for the spectators.

Now, he was back at the Zenith Estate and somehow had been dragged in as a trainer, almost specifically for Christina. Ever since he beat her, she had insisted on challenging him every chance she got. At some point, it had devolved from sparring into him giving her tips.

He surprisingly didn’t mind it. She was insistent and an excellent listener. She didn’t argue when he recommended something; she tried it out and asked questions afterwards. Compared to Aubrey, she was an absolute delight to teach.

He just wished that she would do the same with Derek, who she obviously adored and respected. According to her logic, there was no way she could inconvenience Derek for something so simple.

He didn’t know if he should be offended that she thought it was fine to bother him. He felt like he should have.

He let out a sigh as he looked over at her, where she was beating herself up and also the floor after losing to him once again. Her fists were slamming into the hard ground with quite a powerful force, considering she was a mage.

If there was one negative thing he had to say about her, it was her unreasonable expectations she placed on herself. She believed that if she tried hard enough, she would be able to close the gap between them before the tournament started.

He had bluntly told her that it wasn’t possible. It would take much longer before she would be able to do that. He didn’t mention that he doubted that she would ever get to that point. He didn’t want to crush her hopes completely; he also didn’t want to sound too conceited.

“Why can’t I beat you?” She finally asked him after she felt like the floor had its fill of punishment.

He gave it some actual thought since she sounded like she wanted an honest answer. He rubbed his chin and took a few moments.

“I think it has to do with two main issues. One, is that your body is just unable to keep up with mine. The physical gap is huge, and you can’t react in time. But I know you are a long-range fighter, so it’s not that big of an issue. The other is just willpower. I don’t know how often you have trained your willpower, but that is a big reason why my aura is so effective on you. I can just enforce my will without much impediment,” he answered truthfully.

She nodded and narrowed her eyes as she processed that information. “Do you have ideas on how I can train my willpower?”

He bobbed his head. “The simplest way is just to clash your will against a more powerful will. It will naturally get stronger, and you will instinctively learn to manipulate it to gain an advantage. I know that there are dedicated tools and training aids, but I’ve never experienced what they are like, so I can’t say if they will help or not.”

“Okay, I think that’s what I am going to do. I don’t think that improving my physique will do me much good, but I can improve my willpower,” she stated with a firm nod.

“Don’t neglect your body. You didn’t see Lily before, but she was very similar to you and your brother. However, she has recently put in a lot of effort to address that weakness. I am confident to say that she has become exponentially more dangerous now,” he said to her. While Christina had a decent physique, there were still some weaknesses that any skilled opponent would exploit.

“You say that, but how many people do you think will be able to rival you in terms of physical prowess?” she asked with a weird look.

“What do you mean?” He asked her.

“How many people do you think will be in the tournament who have the speed, strength, perception, constitution, and reaction time like you do? Be honest.”

He scrunched up his face and thought about it. “I can’t be sure. I am not too knowledgeable about who else might be competing,” he said as honestly as he could. He really had no idea. He knew that the others had been talking about some interesting participants, but he hadn’t been paying that much attention.

From what he had overheard, there were supposed to be some pretty amazing Tier 3s coming from all around the Empire. But he didn’t really know for sure.

“Give me an estimate,” she demanded.

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Not too many, maybe a dozen or two,” he admitted. If he used Edgar as a basis for comparison, he would say that very few people would be able to challenge him in terms of pure physical power now that he had trained with Cain for these past few months.

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Even at the Shattered Winter School, there were only a few Tier 3s who could give him a good fight. While they had better overall control, his output was crazy high.

For some reason, she laughed when she heard his answer. “Yeah, that is about how many I was thinking as well. That’s why I am not too concerned.”

“Why not? That is still a pretty large number,” he said with a tilt of his head.

She scoffed. “I know my place. I might have qualified for the tournament, but I have no actual plans to win it. My only hope is that I somehow make it into the top hundred, although I am not entirely sure if I will be able to do that. If I go up against people that strong, then that means I am really unlucky, or I have already made it to the top hundred.”

He wanted to say something to her, but he didn’t necessarily disagree with her logic. She wasn’t on the same level as Edgar, Derek, or Aubrey; that much was clear. However, she was also younger and likely stronger than they were at her age. She also had the option to participate next year if she was still at Tier 3.

“Are you using this year as a practice run if you participate next year?” He asked.

She shrugged. “If I am still at Tier 3, I probably will. I mainly want the experience more than anything else. It’s not like I am exactly starving for resources or money, like some of the other participants. Getting the rewards isn’t the primary goal for me,” she explained.

He nodded in understanding. It was a good goal to have, and that’s what he was aiming for. He was also pretty curious what the secret realm in the second stage was all about. From what he heard from the others, he might find it more useful than the actual rewards from placing well.

He was interrupted from his reverie when Christina shoved his shoulder. “Come on, let’s go one more time. I want to at least get in one good hit before the tournament starts,” she said with a stubborn grin.