Chapter 471: The Eve before the Tournament

Joshua was laid out on the grass of his training ground breathing hard and sour all over. Even though the new system implementation that allowed him to fight enemies from prior experience was a simulation, he would still feel the pain whenever he got hit. Right now he was exhausted after spending most of the day fighting in different battles against the three different types of humanoid boss level creatures that he had faced in the past. The only difference this time around was the fact that he wasn't just fighting them one at a time.

To start things off he fought two of them at a time. He fought the mutated ant and the lizard warlock together which was the weakest combination that he could come up with, but even so they put up a far greater challenge than Joshua was expecting. Fighting them separately was an easy task for Joshua since he knew all of their move sets and how they behaved when fighting. At this point he could even take down the far stronger mutated scorpion relatively quickly when using the right skills. The only reason it became such a challenging fight was because the two boss level creatures surprisingly worked extremely well together.

Since the mutated ant was there to be the close ranged fighter the lizard warlock was able to stay away from Joshua and do what it did best. Instead of the warlock having to continuously attack Joshua to keep him away it was able to focus on buffing up the mutated ant before putting several curses on Joshua to slow him down. This situation was horrible for Joshua and put him on the defensive while trying to survive the onslaught of the mutated ant. Joshua was still able to force the mutated ant into an enraged state with a couple of well-placed counters, but he ended up losing the fight the first time around since he didn't expect the ant to become so much faster after being enraged at the same time as being empowered by the lizard.

Eventually Joshua did succeed in taking down the duo of bosses and it mostly came down to the fact that he would go after the lizard warlock as soon as possible making the fight much easier the moment he took it down. The next combination he faced off against was the mutated ant backing up the mutated scorpion. This combination was more annoying than anything else since Joshua was forced to try to deal damage to the mutated scorpion while avoiding any of the deadly fast strikes from the mutated ant as it flew by at high speeds. If it wasn't for Joshua's new vengeance skill then he wouldn't have been able to put himself in a position where he could take down the mutated scorpion. He made sure to take it down before it could go into an enraged state otherwise there was no way he would be able to win the fight.

The last combination and the most difficult one for Joshua to deal with was when he went against the mutated scorpion while it was being supported by the lizard warlock. Beforehand Joshua thought that the mutated ant was difficult to take down when being supported by the lizard warlock, but the mutated scorpion was on a completely different level. With the support of the lizard warlock Joshua had a hard time breaking through the mutated scorpion's defenses and the longer the fight dragged on the more curses the lizard was able to put on Joshua to make things more difficult. Joshua ended up losing the first two fights against that annoying combination because he could never one shot the mutated scorpion before it could go into its enraged state with all the buffs from its partner.

Eventually Joshua was able to finish off taking down the last combination after several tries once he figured out the timing where he could trick the mutated scorpion into a trap of aura strings that would hold it down long enough for him to go in and take out the lizard quickly. It was hard to get into that position and even after taking down the lizard Joshua still had to take down the much tougher mutated scorpion, but in the end Joshua was able to figure it out.

The reason Joshua was stretched out on the ground completely exhausted at the moment was because he had just tried to take on all three of the beast at the same time. That attempt had gone incredibly badly. The mutated scorpion on its own was difficult enough with all the buffs it was getting, but having the mutated ant constantly aiming for Joshua's exposed weak points while facing the mutated scorpion was horrible. Joshua never stood a chance as he didn't even get the chance to take out the lizard before things went sideways. He tried the fight a couple more times but it didn't matter how much he changed his tactics throughout the fight it was just impossible for him to take them all out before things got out of hand.

Laying on the grass looking up at the darkening sky Joshua let out a sigh as he started to feel his aura heal up all the aching pains he had gained from his training for the day. At this point he had done as much as he possibly could to prepare for the tournament coming up and he just needed to spend the rest of the day relaxing and resting his body. It was while he was stretched out on the ground that he heard someone else entering his training ground. Usually if someone in the alliance was stopping by to check up on him they'd call ahead, but since the intruder was someone that just came in without any warning Joshua could only narrow it down to three people.

Joshua closed his eyes before getting up off the ground and turning around to see who it could be. He was a bit surprised at the person walking over to him with a big jug of alcohol on her waist. She had a big grin on her face that showed her teeth as she glanced over to Joshua and noticed the state he was in.

"Looks like you've been busy." Garlin said as she looked him over a bit. "Been getting your ass kicked while training it seems."

"Yeah well you can't learn if you don't push your limits." Joshua said with a shrug. "Besides I was just turning in for the night."

"Got to get some rest for the upcoming tournament right?"

"You guys actually pay attention to that?" Joshua asked a bit surprised. "I didn't think it was such a big deal." While talking the both of them started heading over to the little cottage that Joshua often used to rest or spend the night in his training ground whenever he overdid it a bit. Garlin was heading there to sit back and relax so she could drink her time away while Joshua just followed along since he knew that both Garlin and Thoren were heavy drinkers. If either one of them came for a visit Joshua knew that there was going to be a lot of alcohol involved.

"It might not be that big of a deal from our perspective at first, but it does give us a good judge of who the future high level explorers of your world will be. Of course that could change over time, but for now it is one of our best ways to judge the strength of you all." Garlin said with a shrug as she opened the door to the cottage and walked over to the couch. "Besides its best that you perform well in this tournament if things go the way we're expecting."

"I'm guessing I'm not going to get a bigger hint am I?" Joshua said as he sat down across from her on one of the chairs. He pulled out a beer of his own from his inventory that was still cold. He didn't really need to worry about a hangover in the morning with his aura around to mitigate the symptoms. Even so he didn't plan on drinking the night away, he just knew that if he didn't start drinking something then Garlin would try to get him to drink whatever she had with her and that was likely to put him under the table through the whole next day if it was similar to the stuff Thoren had brought over the last time he was around.

"That's all we can tell you, besides the system wouldn't like us ruining the surprise. You should just be glad it's allowing us to tell you something like this already." Garlin said before downing some of the drink out of her large jug. She was a tall and well-built woman, but a jug that size would knock out just about anyone Joshua knew even if it was watered down alcohol. From the smell of it Joshua knew that wasn't the case. "Just think of it as a way to build up your standing. The better you do in this tournament the better off you'll be in the future. That goes for the other members of your group. Obviously you can't all win, but make sure they get as far as they can."

"Is that what you came by to tell me, or was that just something you had to say in order to find an excuse to come over and drink away the day while you skip out on work?" Joshua asked as he raised his eyebrow in a questioning manner. "I wouldn't be surprised if that were the case. Thoren does it all the time."

"Well something like that. I did want to see how things were coming along for you. Judging by that ass kicking you took from facing those three boss class beast I can tell that you have been pushing your limits in your training which is a good thing." Garlin said with a thoughtful look as she laid back on the couch.

"Wait you saw all that? How?" Joshua asked a bit surprised.

"Well since I have full access to this training ground I can of course see your training whenever I want, but it's not like I check very often. It's usually only when I'm planning to come over that I start looking into see what you're up to."

"I'm guessing Thoren and Ysildea can do the same thing as well. Well at least it's only you guys, I would hate to see to many people figuring out all of things I can do right before the tournament." Joshua replied before they both fell into a comfortable state of silence for a little while before Joshua asked one thing. "Well got any advice for tomorrow?"

Garlin took another long drink from her jug before seriously looking at Joshua as if the words she was about to say were going to be enlightening. "Hit them hard!"