Max restarted his training routine and immediately noticed that something felt off after not training for about a week.
Although he was doing the same exercises and the same drills that he was familiar with, his gains became much faster as every few hours he could hear a stat increase.
Max was pleasantly surprised to see that after taking a week off from exercising to focus on the tournament had got him extremely motivated and in the correct mindset to train as now training under a time constraint saw his results improve by a mile.
With a clear goal in mind, Max felt slightly more pressured and focused on his task which somehow polished his movements a little more than his training a week ago.
It seemed like training for a reason gave him the ' X ' factor boost.
Even Drax who was usually very vocal about Max's faults during training was surprisingly calm during the days as he rarely corrected Max's form on anything.
The old A.I. was having a good time living inside Max these days as he could see the growth between the kid who had enrolled in the university 10 months ago to the kid Max had become now and he could almost say that he was proud.
The reason why Drax stressed on ' Almost ' was because Max was still too soft when it came to trusting people in his opinion.
If it were up to Drax, he would have Max not even trust his own brother to have the best intentions in heart for him, much less friends like Asiva, Anna or Sebastian, however, he kept his mum regarding this issue knowing that it was a sensitive topic for Max.
Rudra had shockingly accepted Max's invitation to come to the round of 64 matches alongside his wife and Max had a strong feeling from reading the message that his brother sent him that he was forced by sister in law Naomi to attend.
Regardless, Max was happy that his brother was coming to see him fight as this gave him some extra motivation to shine as brightly as possible.
Filled with excitement, nervousness, and an indomitable drive to improve, Max trained hard for the three weeks before the tournament started and although he did not manage to reach stat maximisation with his agility and constitution stat refusing to maximise just like when he was in tier 0, he managed to maximise the other four.
*******
( A few hours before the tournament )
Max was nervously tapping his shoes in an isolated corner of the university, as he tried to calm down his raging heart before the start of the tournament.
" Hello ". Severus said, seemingly appearing out of nowhere as he shocked the nervous Max
" Agh, what the hell " Max complained as he frowned
Severus was the only individual who could bypass Max's new heightened senses, as not only did Severus never make any sounds before arriving, he also seemed to love giving surprises and shocking a calmly sitting individual.
" Your heart is beating faster than a horse, that blood pressure is definitely not healthy ". Severus said
" How do you know that my heart is beating fast? ". Max asked in protest but was slammed badly by both Severus and Drax at once
' Because he can hear you stupid ' Drax said in his mind
" Because I can hear it " Severus replied
" Damn it " Max cursed, embarrassed to be caught in such a position.
Severus ignored the cursing and said " Okay, now … strip ".
Max's eyes widened in disbelief at what his ears were hearing as he said " Sorry, what? ".
Severus pressured " Yes, strip, I need to wrap your whole body in a special non-tearing fabric ".
Max narrowed his eyes and asked " Why? "
Severus explained " My dearest boy Max, it has come to the Saint Maximus clan's notice that you shall be fighting in the round of 64.
Since you are an absolute idiot who knows nothing, let me explain your situation.
The round of 64 will be held in the Oval arena.
The oval arena is an OPEN arena where natural sunlight shines brightly from above.
If while fighting you tear your common robes covering your body, you will be exposed to the harsh sunlight leading to your skin burning and you losing the fight.
To avoid losing a match due to such petty reasons the Saint Maximus Clan has financed a 12 million gold coin fabric that is extremely hard to destroy to cover your body.
Not only will it give your protection against cuts and bruises, it has some minute self healing properties which means that even if it's cut and you are injured it will quickly reheal to cover the cut.
It's not indestructible, but it will help you a lot. So strip now so that I can wrap it around you properly".
Upon hearing Severus's explanation Max immediately began stripping as he allowed Severus to tightly wrap the cool to touch special fabric around him.
" I heard your brother is coming to attend .. " Severus asked in a hushed voice
" Yes .. " Max replied
" Good, you must exaggerate how good the Saint Maximus Clan has been to you to your brother, okay? ". Severus said in a half threatening, half pleading tone.
Max started to chuckle as he understood the game behind the Saint Maximus Clan sponsoring such an expensive item for him.
Hearing his laughter, Severus's face turned a little red as he knew he was exposed, as he sheepishly said " The destroyer class Battleship sold by your brother at a discount to Saint Maximus is a steal deal saving us billions in wealth.
We want to buy another one after noticing the superior performance of the first, and it would help the clan a lot if you can put in a good word for us ".
Severus came clean, and Max stopped laughing and agreed.
The Saint Maximus Clan had indeed helped him through the semester and Severus had actually looked out for him so he was not averse to helping them back this one time.
—-------
/// A/N - This bonus chapter is sponsored by patron Rvoll2010, please thank him in the comments for this one!
Find Max's updated stat pannel in the author notes below ///
