"Dude you have to tell us everything that happened! Is it true that both big shots at the Twin Peak and the Silver Wind Mercenary Group gave you tokens and asked you to visit them when you leave the campus and head into the outside world? Do not worry if I ask my father, I could help you with some guards to accompany you just in case anyone wants to look for some trouble with you!" Andrew was the first to say something when both he and Ian saw Timothy enter into their room.
"Oh please Andrew, you only want to give him some guards from your merchant group so that they can secretly pass over a letter from you to their forces to take advantage of the situation. Can't blame you since rumor has it that your father once used the same method in order to make contact with the Blood Ridge Academy, an academy that has kept to themselves for many years but just so happened to have an elder invite a young man who was serving under his organization."
As Andrew and Ian were bickering and trying to throw some fists at each other in a somewhat playful way, Timothy sat down at the table and could only laugh. The trio may have been brothers now even though they were not born into the same family, but it was almost as if the way they treated each other were that of true siblings. In his past life, Timothy had several close allies who served under him for over a decade at a time, but there was no one who had a genuine brotherly bond with him since he was an only child and only knew how to slay demons.
After going through how the entire night went with his brothers, Timothy chose to head to bed even though it was still rather early into the night. He refused to tell them, but the tournament he would be partaking in was actually the next day during the late morning. If he wanted to be competitive and able to give it his all, he had to go to bed early since he still needed to head over to the coliseum since he technically advanced and needed to update the staff.
It would not be considered cheating if a contestant's strength grew during the time period they were waiting for a tournament to happen and they chose not to report it until one of the judges picked up on it which they would right away. However, Timothy knew that it was only right to report such a thing and he now had enough gold coins to check out the full roster of competitors he would be competing against since applications closed during the night before the day of each competition.
The next morning Timothy skipped eating breakfast in the dining hall of the Grey Imperial Academy and instead headed into the city. The marketplace was always open to travelers and anyone willing to shop and what Timothy needed was some gear he could wear since he did not want to give himself away by wearing the academy's uniform even though he was able to receive a battle type uniform which would not give him any troubles during combat.
Now that he was thirteen years old, Timothy felt that it would make sense for him to get a reinforced full set of leather armor. It would not necessarily be able to block strikes on its own, but at the current moment, if he were to try to wear a full set of armor, his body may not be able to exert his true potential when it came to combat. Luckily, he was able to find exactly what he wanted, but also found a very light pair of steel gauntlets that did not cover his fingers but from his elbow and up to the remainder of his hands.
Since he still had some time before he felt he needed to arrive to the coliseum to handle all of his business before the tournament started, Timothy spent some time shopping for some ordinary items that most cultivators should have but that he lacked and that the school did not provide as well as several books about the different places around the empire and even books on the different organizations and rough rankings of each when it came to public knowledge.
Six hundred gold coins later, it was finally time for Timothy to head to the coliseum. As he arrived, no one recognized him since he wore his mask and he quickly showed the first employee that walked in his direction his entry pass and explained the situation. It took less than two minutes, but he was able to update his own information with one of the organizers and even was able to receive an update on the tournament and what he should be expecting throughout.
There were a total of four hundred cultivators competing for the grand prize and the tournament would begin with a battle royale between one hundred cultivators in each bracket. From there, the two cultivators who could advance to the top eight would be healed immediately and would be given a number between one and eight. From there, the top four contestants would receive a full refund as well as twenty five gold coins each immediately, the top two contestants would receive an additional fifty gold coins on top of the twenty five, and of course the winner would receive one hundred gold coins and the grand prize!
Doing the calculations in his head almost caused Timothy to have a headache given that over twenty five hundred spectators already paid to get in and there were at least five hundred more waiting for their gold to be accepted. If he could one day afford to build out a coliseum, Timothy felt that he would make an absolute killing, enough so that for thousands of generations after he passed away if he ever did, his family would never have to worry about money issues ever again! Plus, it was not unusual for a coliseum to not have to pay out any taxes since they brought so much opportunity to said city they were situated in and the amount of business they brought with them would allow said city to prosper more than it would just from simply collecting some yearly taxes or tribute.
What was interesting to Timothy, was that there were roughly nine other contestants that were at the same level he was as far as the top ten was concerned, but according to what he saw when he was given his updated entry pass, was that in Bracket B which was his bracket, only one other contestant considered to be in the top ten overall was in the same bracket as he was! There was such a thing as luck and good karma was a good indication of the level of luck a cultivator would receive, but wasn't this a little too much luck?
Not only that, but that other individual was from a first rate organization and most likely would not try to knock him out during this free for all style battle royale. If it was someone from a less righteous looking background or who had a bad public reputation it may have been different, but there was at least a ninety five percent chance that the teenage girl would know better than to make trouble for him since she too was lucky enough to avoid needing to compete for a single spot between two others in the same bracket.
