Chapter 490: Break day and Brackets Get Revealed

After the fourth day of the tournament came to an end the system sent out a message to everyone that was still considered a participant in the tournament. At this point the system had cut down the amount of participants to a number that could fit within a decent bracket system, but the system still had to calibrate the seeding for all of the explorers left in the tournament. The message stated that the seeding would be revealed during the next evening while the fifth day of the tournament would be considered a break day. This gave everyone a short breather and a pause to all of the commotion that the tournament was bringing. Of course Joshua knew that the news stations would still be watering at the mouths to figure out what the seeding for the tournament would be and was constantly talking about it throughout the entire day.

For the most part Joshua avoided watching the news stations and the battle arena's broadcast throughout the day off from the tournament. All they talked about was predictions for the last two days of the tournament or showed replays of some of the previous fights that were exciting to watch from the fourth day of the competition. For the most part Joshua decided to put all of that stuff out of mind as he got back into his daily routine of training his body, reading through a lot of material that his mother left behind for him to prepare for his next support job test, and checked in on how the large town was coming along under the guidance of the architect crew.

Joshua made sure to avoid doing anything that would bring his attention back to the tournament for the entire day and the relaxation went a long ways to relieving him from any of the tension of worrying about upcoming events. He didn't even spend much time with other members of the alliance since they all planned on giving it their all during the tournament which would put them up against each other at some point in the tournament. By now there wasn't a lot of cannon fodder left to keep them from running into each other so they were treating each other like rivals going into the last two days of the tournament. In the past Joshua had fought against friends in tournaments and he was never the type to be all buddy-buddy during the time leading up to the match.

One other thing that Joshua noticed during his time taking a break from all the tournament nonsense was that none of his mentors had visited him during the time of the tournament. Thoren and Garlin hadn't come by for a drinking visit during the tournament while Ysildea hadn't come by for their random tea time conversations that Joshua had grown to like. It was a bit odd not seeing any of them while he was spending so much time in the hub city, but he'd keep what they said in mind about the tournament going into the last two days. Joshua wasn't foolish enough to think winning this tournament was the end game for the second phase of the world change, but he knew it would be a step in the right direction.

When evening finally came around and Joshua was resting while relaxing near the waterfall in his training area, he finally got the system message that all of the remaining participants of the tournament were currently waiting for. This message was a bit flashier than the other ones that Joshua had seen up to this point. This time around the moment the message appeared it was colored in gold with a flash of fireworks going off around it when Joshua clicked on it to read it.

[Congratulations on getting to the final portion of the tournament. It has been a long four days and you have earned your spot in the bracket portion of the tournament. There are currently 1,024 participants left for the bracketed portion of the tournament which is less than one percent of the amount of participants that started out in this hub city. Making it this far already means you are at the top of the strength of the explorers of this hub city and all participants that have made it to this portion of the tournament will be given a title that can be displayed for others to read through observation. ]

Reading up to this point Joshua smiled a bit at the idea of already being considered one of the strongest in the city, but he knew that they weren't the only hub city around so he still had a lot to prove and reaching the top of this hub city's rankings would only increase his standing in the future. Joshua didn't know exactly why Thoren told him that he would need to reach a higher spot in the rankings, but it was definitely important if the old dwarf was constantly pointing it out. Joshua turned his attention back to the rest of the message so he could figure out what exactly was in store for him over the next two days.

[The bracket for the tournament is broken into thirty two different smaller brackets. Each of these brackets will have a competitor with different seeding's in them. There will be thirty two people placed in each of these brackets ranked from first all the way down to thirty-second. The highest ranked individual in the bracket will face the lowest ranked and that will persist through all of the other ranked individuals in the bracket. The first day of the bracketed portion of the tournament will consist of each of the brackets fighting it out until one person remains in the bracket. This will bring the remaining participants down to thirty-two explorers that will fight it out for the highest spot on the last day of the tournament.]

Joshua read through the information and instantly realized how the tournament was being structured. It was similar to how college basketball would set up their tournaments except on a much bigger scale. It was a good way to set things up and would make for an interesting tournament that could have several upsets in it. The last thousand or so people left remaining in the tournament would all be high level participants, especially after the fourth day where most of the remaining lower level explorers were cleared out. Now that Joshua had a clear idea of how the rest of the tournament would work out he was just looking to see where exactly he was placed in the bracket portion of the tournament. Soon another golden message popped up for him to read.

[Congratulations on getting a number one seed in the bracketed portion of the tournament. The system is currently randomizing which bracket you will be placed in. This knowledge will not be known until tomorrow morning so that all participants have the same conditions. Good luck during the rest of tournament!]

It didn't come as much of a surprise that Joshua ended up getting the highest seed available. The system had a lot of information to go off of that would put him in such a position. In each of his matches he was able to quickly end them without using any skills or even a weapon in several cases. Even if that wasn't enough to judge off of there was the fact that Joshua had fought in the battle arena several times in the past. That gave the system plenty of information that made it easy for it to give him such a high seeding.

Joshua was a bit sad that he couldn't see the seeding's of other members of the alliance, but at the same time he could see why the battle arena was setting up things in this way. The surprise would make it impossible for people to get caught up doing everything that they could to prepare for their upcoming opponent. It would be a shame if someone got taken out simply because someone else had just prepared perfectly for taking them out before the matches even began. The way the brackets were set up the system could keep them in the dark when it came to the final day of the tournament as well. Of course with only thirty-two people for the final bracket it would be much easier to just focus on learning all you can about the other thirty-one remaining competitors on the last day, but not knowing the seeding and position of everyone else will make things more exciting.

In Joshua's mind the first match was going to be a little easier since it would be against someone that only got a thirty-second seed, but after that point it was likely that Joshua would end up fighting against more and more high level explorers with different styles of combat that could take him by surprise. Then there was the fact that if he made it to the last day of the tournament he would be going up against nothing but number one seeds like himself, or people that were able to get by number one seeds in one way or another. It was a great set up for the competition and would lead to several exciting matches. Going with a tried and true method of competition while adding the mystery of not knowing exactly who you were going to face until right before your match was a great idea.

After reading through all of the messages Joshua headed home just in time to meet up with most of his family for dinner. Amy was clearly excited for the true competition to start. Joshua told her outright not to tell him her seeding so that both of them would be completely in the dark about the others position in the brackets. Amy agreed, but she clearly was excited to hopefully face him in the tournament at some point. Their mother just smiled at their back and forth and was happy to see them both doing well in the tournament. With most people sticking around in the hub city for the tournament there weren't a bunch of explorers coming into the hospital with major injuries. It allowed his mother and most of the staff at the hospital to get a needed break from their day to day task.

The one person that hadn't shown up to dinner was Joshua's father. The man had been standoffish and absent during most of the tournament and it was finally time for Joshua to talk to him about it. Besides there was one way that Joshua knew how to learn more about the Iron Claw and it was as easy as just asking a question.