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Chapter 745 - Events for the 3rd tournament
🕑 Added 2025-11-27 09:39:38 +0000 UTCThis tournament has only four events over the duration of five days. It is less than before, and the tournament is shorter too.
What I keep thinking of is that the fact that it is impossible to die during events might push the planets to fight against each other. I would not be surprised if this entire setup is designed so that we attack each other. Us being on two separate floating islands clearly hints at that. All paired with the fact that people can die outside the events.
It makes for a surprisingly cruel setting. For example, someone like Adrian or Christoph could probably just fly to the opposing island and erase all of them. There are likely a few hundred people from Hell difficulty who can put up a fight, and some Beyond attendees who could push him a bit further. But how the hell would they learn to cooperate fast enough to face someone who already killed a Champion grade being on the fifth floor of Beyond?
When he flew toward them, I thought he might try exactly that, but it does not seem to be the case. He returns a few minutes after he left, landing in the middle of the group of people and talking to them.
I watch from inside my barrier when Lily brings my attention to her.
“It hurts,” she says from where she sits on the ground with her knees pulled to her chest.
I turn to her and tilt my head in question.
She keeps talking. “It hurts you. Every body upgrade so far caused a lot of pain, and with your current Constitution, it must be even more intense, especially since you also need to manage your mana. And I have felt it before, those golden flames of yours are especially painful. You would probably say you can ignore most of it with your concentration skill, but I know you would be lying.”
A few minutes of having to deal with the constructs pass, and the current stage of the body upgrade pauses, so I move thermal energy to heal myself and restore my vocal cords enough to talk.
“It is like stubbing your toe or getting a papercut,” I tell her, before all of it burns away again and forces me to close my mouth.
Lily laughs and buries her face into her knees so I cannot see, “When I healed you a little, I examined your scars, Nat. All these scars now covering your body. They will stay. I do not think anyone other than a specialized Absolute will be able to remove them. They feel like they became a part of you because of all these things happening at once.”
I glance at my hands coated in golden flames that burn them, and through the flames, I see the pale white scars across my forearm and the back of my hand. It is not like my whole body is covered in them, but there are plenty. Some wounds heal without scars, and others do not.
There are scars on my back. Two long ones are on my chest. Two crossed ones on my shoulder. Another long one around my right forearm, almost like a ring circling its entire thickness. One even runs from the bottom of my left cheek and continues across my neck.
Interestingly, my pale left arm has none. On it, every wound heals perfectly.
“Does it matter?” I ask Lily once I heal enough to speak again.
Still with her face buried in her knees, she says, “I guess it does not.”
***
Similar to the prior tournaments, the first day has no scheduled events, so people can simply meet and talk with each other. Most of all, Christoph uses the opportunity to introduce himself to the others from the Earth´s tutorial.
Many people already know about him, and many more saw him defend the floating island or go to talk with our tournament opponents. I can only imagine how easy dealing with them must be for him, thanks to his [Empathy] or some similar skill. He’ll know all their worries and suspicions, and with almost a thousand years of experience with people and life in general, it’ll be simple for him to handle it all without anyone noticing.
Maybe Izzy could pick up on something, but I doubt she is strong enough. I also doubt Christoph wants anyone to know he’s an empath, so a part of me worries only for me to realize that this is probably exactly what he expects. I worry for Izzy. I can imagine someone ruthless killing her to avoid any risk of being exposed by an empath. But he must know she’s part of my group. Hell, he probably understands better than I what I’d do if he touched her.
And for now, he seems to want to stay on good terms with me and Vic, so I really don’t think he’ll do it. But if I stood in his way, if I was too weak to finish what I start, then he doesn’t strike me as someone who would hesitate.
He can talk all he wants about how he changed, but I’m sure parts of that Adrian from the tutorial a thousand years ago are still inside him.
Another question hits me. What does he sense from Vic? I know my sister, and I love her deeply, but I also know she experiences very little emotion, probably only one or two at most.
Forced to stop those thoughts, I focus on my body, only to realize it’s getting worse, and the upgrade is starting to dig further and deeper. It feels like the beginning was just a soft touch, an examination and surface preparation, and now it’s pushing into the core.
The upgrade should take a few days, though I don’t know how many. I just know that when this is all done, my capabilities will be incomparable to anything I could do before.
Freed for a moment after another spike of changes, I start reading the tournament notifications to keep myself busy while dealing with it all.
Events for the 3rd tournament of the Earth tutorial have been decided. They are as follows:
1st event - Stampede
2nd event - Bridge of Conquest
3rd event - Dungeon Challenge
4th event - Open Challenge Circuit
The first event will start in twenty two hours. More information will be shared soon.
One thing is clear. Only two hours have passed, even though it feels much longer.
Fuck.
(Okay, I finally did it. Damn it, if it wasn’t difficult and if it didn’t keep disconnecting. Nat, tell the twins to shut up. I need to focus and keep rebuilding the bridge because you decided to become mana radioactive. And Lily, are you sure you’re okay?) Sophie’s voice sounds in my mind once I let the communication attempt connect.
(I'm fine, Soph. I'm watching what this amount of mana does to my body, and working on simple defenses against it. It might be useful for more mana sensitive people from Earth who will work with attendees a lot,) Lily answers calmly.
(Are you going to sell it?) Dennis asks. (You could make a lot of money.)
Tess joins in. (I seriously doubt Lily will ever lack money. But Nat, all good?)
(It feels like my body will break apart into a radioactive mess any second.)
(So your optimal state, where you are at your most powerful... ouch, what the fuck, Min-Jae!) Dennis doesn't finish his sentence properly.
(Are you okay with us talking, or do you need to concentrate more?) Min-Jae asks.
Thinking of it for a moment, I shrug, though they likely don't see it, as I can't see them from here. (Lack of concentration isn't the problem.)
(Will you be okay?) Min-Jae's voice sounds slightly worried.
(As if something like this ever stopped me, I...)
I don't get to finish my sentence as Sophie barges in. (Sure, sure, you guys can have your manly men conversation later. Did you go with the third variation?)
I snort. (Obviously, though, that one was made in case the healing aura wouldn't be too effective against system-caused damage, like the body upgrade, so I had to modify it a lot. Before you offer, I don't need help; I've already been working on it from the start. I just need to make improvements faster than the progress of the body upgrade.)
(And Izzy calls me stubborn,) Sophie sighs. (Fucking weirdo.)
(I've heard worse. How does it look out there?)
This time, it is Tess answering. (As you would have expected. Samuel once again tries to build his army, organization, or whatever he calls it nowadays. Our First Beyonder on the other side is surprisingly casual about all of it. He shows off a little, slips into the background, talks to a person or two, and gradually, more and more people grow curious about him and try to talk to him because he seems so approachable. But who knows what his goal is in all of this?)
As I listen to it, I give it a thought of how I should react, what I should say. Anything I do might hint at a thing or two, so I'd rather decide to say as little as possible.
Aaron thankfully helps with that. (Some of the Hell difficulty groups lost people, even Whitewing. Brainiac worries about Gareth, who takes it on himself that he couldn't protect them. And after the first attack, the other planet just went silent. Christoph said they were just playfully testing us, and they won't do it again.)
(He must have spanked them real hard. We have this tournament in the bag.) I can almost hear a grin in Dennis's voice. (Imagine how the third tournaments look when both sides are equal. I bet people sneak in to kill certain people to have a better chance during the event.)
(It is still possible it will come to that later.) Tess rejoins and addresses me again. (Our opponents are thylarin. I haven't seen anyone I would recognize from the description as a powerful A rank, and I don't think they have any S rank.)
(Tess,) I say, (please don't tell me you bought information on powerful A ranks in Beyond and remembered as many as you could.)
(I did, but as I said, only notable ones. Of course, even though I didn't see any such thylarin among them, it doesn't mean they don't have any or that they don't have powerful people who just didn't go to Beyond, so we will keep our guard up. From the previous experience, it's safe to say there will be events where we will end up facing each other.)
(Won't it start with an event where we go against monsters, then large-scale battles, before more individual ones? The previous tournaments went like that.) Min-Jae muses.
(It might...) Tess doesn't get to finish when the conversation cuts off after yet another spike of changes done to my body.
I don't allow another attempt to connect and instead turn my attention back to my body fully.
"They are asking if you are okay," Lily says from where she sits.
"Yup, I'm okay," I say.
She doesn't react to it at all, so I turn to look her way out of curiosity.
"Liar, liar, pants on fire," Lily sings quietly, staring at me.
"Well, the part about pants on fire is suspiciously accurate now," I say back.
"Nose as long as a telephone wire," she finishes quietly.
***
Just before the start of the 1st event, I get a notification.
The 1st event - Stampede will start soon!
In one hour, everyone will be transferred to the event area, both planets and all difficulties together. The location of the event will be randomly chosen from the system database.
Your planet will compete against your opponent´s planet. The winning side will receive boosted rewards, which will also raise the individual rewards given to the participants.
The 1st event will take place over the course of the next 12 hours, and the individual contenders will be rewarded according to their performance.
During the Stampede, more and more powerful waves of monsters will come through the portal for you to face.
Your objective is to collect more points than your opponents.
You can collect points in two ways:
1st - Killing monsters
2nd - Sabotaging your opponents
The longer you endure the stampede, the better the rewards.
Reading it, I come up with some strategies right away. It’s obvious you likely do not want to sabotage your opponent too much, so both of you can endure the stampede for as long as possible for the best rewards. Then you also want to sabotage them for more points, and need to balance these two things.
I almost suspect that in the last minutes of the 12th hour, the monsters will become increasingly powerful. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the same as with the Witherclaw, where in the last seconds, he became comparable to an Absolute.
For the rest of that hour, I do my best. I prepare an array that would allow me to halt my mana as much as possible. I am even prepared to move away from the others.
I should still be able to do enough for some decent rewards. In my opinion, my state isn't that bad for me not to try. Actually, I got used to it and it doesn't even hurt that much anymore. It will be a mess, but that is to be expected.
So impatiently I watch the timer, and when the invitation comes, I press yes to accept.
I feel myself moved into the event the same as everyone else, and find myself on a far stretching flat plain with dust rising into the air and ruins of large structures all over the place.
When I'm about to take a step, I feel a pull and find myself outside. Back alone in the common area, where the barrier around me starts blinking off as it’s only powered by a few mana batteries quickly filled and set to power the structure.
A notification pops up.
You have been flagged as dead, healed, and removed from the event.
Good luck next time!
My healed body starts gathering damage once more.
I slide and sit on the ground, where I clench and open my fists. Then I look up, towards the huge screen that appeared in the common area, and start watching the event.
A second later, Lily appears back in the area.
I stare at her, she stares at me. Then she sits down and pulls her knees up to her chest.
"Wounding yourself enough to get kicked out of the event just to sit here near my sorry ass is exactly the abnormal behaviour I expect from group 4," I note.
Looking at me intently, she says, "You would do the same."
"I wouldn't."
Lily just laughs and stays quiet.
Annoyed for some reason, I lean back from my sitting position and end up lying on the ground as I stare at the top of the barrier while energies explode around me.
"I'm bored, tell me about something," I say.
"Sure." Her voice picks up with excitement. "Want to hear about how Grumpy once saved me from the neighbors’ scary dog?"
"I don't mind."
She then gets to talking, and even with just a small part of my available mind, I listen to her.
Comments
No1special
its kind of implied, becasue they will be facing the waves together.......so the more people you have, yhe more waves you could theoretically take down.
Gardor
"It’s obvious you likely do not want to sabotage your opponent too much, so both of you can endure the stampede for as long as possible for the best rewards." ->theres no mention of the event ending when one planet is finished, so this is not "obvious".
Jeremy A-R
How? It couldn’t be helped
Kevin
I can’t imagine Lis healing Nathaniel’s Scars. First off, she isn’t a healer. She can’t even heal herself which means she probably couldn’t heal something as complicated as what Nat has. Ruby also won’t do anything so long as the scars aren’t detrimental. Why would she? She is more than willing to let Nathaniel keep those scars as a reminder. I also don’t think Nathaniel won’t want them gone. He’ll probably keep them as a kind of reminder.
Andrew Kluttz
At this point his stubborness is just irritating. Missed the entire first event because of it. Dumb.
jax rammus
It's not that he died, its that he's so close to being dead at any given moment that the system booted him to prevent the final nudge.
Hugh Peeble
I don’t think either Nat’s system generated mommy (Lis) or self appointed stalker/handler (Ruby) will let his scars stand… Lily with enough levels in the future will want to fix them also. Nat in his pride refuses to admit to anyone in his team just how much pain he is in. Lily popping out early to keep an eye on him is peak Lily relationship goal and then puts the icing on the cake with “let me tell you about Grumpy and why there is a Normal tutorial healer taking care of him while I am still stuck in the tutorial and can’t do it myself…”
Kirin
Thank you for the chappie!
Morde24
Lol we DEFINITELY get false narration from him, that line might be the most important part of the chapter, Nat seems to be literal millimeters from death and likely will be for days on end, even intentionally so. Or perhaps we are getting some FakeThaniel POV while the rest of Nat is desperately scrambling to hold it together
im Panda
This is not THE planet. Just another planet going through their tutorial. At least I'm pretty sure
Blooper
Tess said thr oponents are thylarin, but Adrian was human, was he not? Was his previous planet a multi-species one?
Sam simmons
Lol. Love that he insta died.
William Johnson
I'm fine with him staying weaker than Adrian for the tournament, but if he's just going to be working on his body refinement the whole time I hope it takes a chapter at most. Otherwise it's just kind of dull.
Brady
Lily and Nat need to kiss already, damnit.
Merpking
The damage he was already in was enough to trigger the system failsafe, healing him and teleporting him back. The body upgrade then continued. Basically this is just a way to keep him out of the event(s).
Melih
I hope I haven’t been looking forward to the third tournament for months only to watch Nat win no awards and stay in Adrian’s shadow
Gutz
Wait what ? He endured 24 hours of hell just to die instantaneously and heals himself ? what about the body upgrade ? is it almost finished because he got "healed" ? i don't understand what happened there. I mean wasn't the whole point of waiting for the 3rd tournament to take advantage of a healing aura ?
DrSubterfuge
Nissa (and nearly everyone else in the upper echelons of the Beyond) is stuck on a floor where you have to kill a champion. Adrian is past that floor. Thus, he has killed a champion.
Benji1229
Wait when did Adrian kill a champion? I don’t remember this
13L00D13ANE
Mmm idk about that. Iirc, passives occur over a few hours, traits are like several hours to maybe half a day? Granted this *is* a big upgrade. I can see it lasting at most 2-3 days but idk about 5. I think he will at least take part in events 3 and 4.
caeven
well he WAS a former absolute. If it was Lissandra who was given this opportunity, shed be strong enough to kill rulers by now.
Andrew
Thank you!
Kradish
I wonder if there'll be a 1v1 between Nat and Christoph during the event that could meet the requirement for absolute candidate before the body upgrade finishes. Wonder if it would still count and potentially improve the end result of the upgrade.
HeadpatsOnly
cant wait for nat to complete his upgrade during the last event and eclipse everyone else including adrian :)!!!
Budgie
This feels so pointless in a way. Like this Adrian guy is already strong enough to kill Champions etc. Other team has no chance and personally I'd hate to read 10 PoVs of someone kissing Christophs ass in the events.
John
I think he might recover enough before the final events, so he can challenge christophs score in the tournament
blaw
By the end of the tournament he will probably be Adrians lackey. And i doubt that this will be good for him in the long run.
Borbino the great
That’s actually so sweet how lily killed herself to hangout with Nat I really love them together
Erebus
Thanks for the chapter 🙂
Erebus
What does ‘Inb4’ mean?
Lance Beam
TFTC.
Nemesis
Maybe Nat can find a way to get even more out of his body upgrade than he already planned for. Something in one of the tournament events that influences the upgrade, or an opponent
Nemesis
It sounds like the rewards this tournament may be at least partially team based, rather than individual
Nemesis
I find it interesting the system judged him as having died, and yet he has been enduring this up until now without actually dying. Kinda odd, I guess it must have a lower threshold than he can tolerate
Isaac Lung
Samuel needs a wake up call
Josh Betts
With the astronomical price of this upgrade I hope its worth the payoff. This is also gonna allow that scheming iskai protagonist to establish a powerbase among earth tutorial difficulty
Edmund Dillon
Tftc!!!
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
I think the tension of Adrian is good at this point of the story. Nat becoming a top dog so we need to see him face new hard seemingly impossible challenges, and Adrian is definitely going to play this role rn. Cerim just an amazing writer
Ansordia
The fact the system deems him dead xD is concerning... Nat might be downplaying even in his mind and we get false narration from him.... God how stupid this is! He is supposed to be the smart one from Group 4! I wonder when we'll get an earth POV chapter to keep up with what is happening... Lily is the best FRIEND you can ask for.... I hope they don't snuzz up together but I feel it will be so... Atleast a few years down the line. Also it feels a bit too much with with Adrian here... Its probably fine considering nat and the gang would have achieved the same... But still amazing!
ariel maoz
Not necessarily, very few times we actually get to see nat be bested by everyone, just following his reactions and emotions would be a great mini arc
Danny
It was lislis who killled it last sec so all get 1.000.000 scards no ?
V
Well that's just a bunch of bullshit, our boy ain't dead! This is one of the Rulers fucking with Nat, isn't it? ;) TFTC.
Adrian Rake
Because of his body upgrade he will waste a lot of opportunities during this Tournament 😔
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
Witherclaw was close to be a champion no? Not an absolute if absolute, there is literally no way Nat would have been able to kill it?
Madje Tobi Marc'Avent Tchona
I don’t think he’s bored. I think he’s a liar. He’s in great pain and needs to distract himself of the pain. But he won’t say it, not even in his mind… but Lily understands
Woodstock179
Haha of course (╯°□°)╯︵ ┻━┻ just the kind of bs I expect the system to pull and try and stop our boy.
Ivan Jelenić
I hope Adrian dies off quickly. He's making the whole tutorial "unclean". I want to see the Earthlings fight and see who's the strongest, dammit, not some little bitch ass coward from another planet with a huge advantage. Hopefully some Ruler sics the system on him.
ShyviaAngel
I think its more like nearly a soul wound or engraving on his trait
zoarian
I love the cheeky "Good luck next time!" from the System. What an asshole!
Val the mysterious Jedi
😭 where is my Tess and Vic conversation, plus I feel cheated nat couldn't just sit in front of a portal and just Chernobyl monsters
Val the mysterious Jedi
Agreed, also biggest lier, telephone wire nose across the world
John
Thanks for the chapter. I find it illogical with the scars, i know you want to leave a mark of what he went through to achive his body in the end, but makes no sense for lily not beeing able to cover them up.
Little Watchmaker
I love the upgrade issues, they just mean what's changing is more than just significant. Also love that Christoph is kind of a fraud, before when he was an earthling that was so talented he started in beyond, he seemed better than Nat. now we know who he is, in my opinion he's less special.
Terri Harris
Sounds like true love! The very best kind, that is also a bit annoying.😂🥰
zoarian
Inb4 Nat's pale scars turn into blue mana lines for that Manapunk look
Rentaro Black
I'm inclined to agree. Afterall, he already beat the fully fledged Champion on floor 5.
BlackRazaras
Thanks for the chapter
Michael Williams
Well. With nat already out of the First round. I don't see him winning this tournament haha
Audrey WJ
He really is the most normal person in group 4!
River
It's hilarious that he's so close to death the entire time that the system immediately kicks him out of the first round but yet at the same time he's 'bored'. Definitely the most normal of group four
Stoney
TFTC! idk how to feel about Nat being so hamstrung in T3. Like, it's good that others will have more of a chance - but then Christoph is still there so... It sounds like possibly the 3rd or 4th event he'll be able to participate. I am also under the impression that he did not intentionally get knocked out.
Nerø
TFTC! So basically, Nat won't be able to participate in any of the events. He'll just be thrown out immediately because of the damages his body is going through. Damnn. I guess it's time for the other Earthers to shine, huh?
frozzi
Rip juicy rewards from tournament, you'll be missed.. Also, no cliif at all in Thursday? Cerim blink twice if you've been kidnapped and that's your SOS signal
DaWykitat
That's a funny ending but also extremely disappointing. Hopefully a better twist on the next events.
Sushitrash
that is actually so funny how he just got booted out
Flo Zilla
good laugh.
TDMC
So random thought. The system is somewhat categorising Christoph as an absolute despite not being that level of power hence why the issues with Earth are happening If Nat were to fight him, would that count towards his absolute candidacy quest?
Rene Duvall
Im gonna love this arc, I can feel it. TFTC!!
Azril Aditya
This tournament is Lame. I hope we just skipped it if there's nothing Nat can do.
okatmosphere
Tftc!
Gravitea
Hah! This is a great way for Nat to not compete with Adrian/Christoph just yet. Poor Nat, though. Gotta be so mad 🤣
Tsorov
Knew it! Goddamned cliff!
Claro reyes
Tftc!!!
vEnviouz
TFTC!!!
