The moment Diana's family finished their prayers, Alexander removed the ceramic mold from the top of the platter, revealing a beautiful and appetizing baked bread.

  Imagining how much time Alexander spent to make a stew like that and so many different types of bread, Diana's mother couldn't help but look at him and start reevaluating him.

  "I didn't know you cooked so well," said Diana's mother—clearly speaking to Alexander, but with her eyes turned to her daughter.

  "These are just the memories of the life I had before I started fighting to survive," replied Alexander in a tone of voice without any animation—which ended any possibility of the conversation going in that direction.

  "I understand," said Diana's mother somewhat awkwardly, who glared at her daughter. "And I'm sorry. You ended up making our meal alone."

  "Don't worry," replied Alexander with a slightly animated tone. "Making this meal paid off."

  The people at the table thought he was talking about food, but the truth was he was referring to maximizing the skill |Cooking|.

  That meal was the final push his proficiency needed to increase.

  "You can eat everything without restrictions," warned Alexander. "The broth is only cloudy because of the amount of seasonings I used to enrich the flavor."

  Diana's mother nodded and began serving everyone.

  When it was Alexander's turn, he intervened: "Just broth and vegetables for me, please."

  As soon as he received his portion, he took out another baked bread, "who knows from where," and started eating it with his broth.

  Upon noticing the curious looks from Diana's family, he gave them some pieces of the new bread. "It's almost the same as the baked bread on the table, just harder... I wanted something with more texture to eat in place of the meat."

  Even knowing that bread was just a meat substitute, the family decided to try it.

  The result was that the breads and vegetables ran out quickly.

  The stew, however, there was leftover. Its high energy content made it hard to digest.

  Thus, by living some quiet days at Diana's parents' house, Alexander recovered.

  During this period, he disassembled most of the creatures he had stored during the months of travel.

  With everyone else also prepared for the trip, it was decided that they would go to Twin City the next morning.

  The next morning, everyone got up, ate a hearty meal, and began the final preparations.

  Taking advantage of this period after the meal, Alexander went to the adventurers' guild to receive the reward he had negotiated with the Guild leader some time ago.

  As he was not lacking money, he asked as a reward a collection of books about familiars and some related skills.

  The collection he received left nothing to be desired. It simply had everything, from how to domesticate them to specific techniques and skills.

  Upon finishing his business with the Guild, he went straight to the local Black Moon store and sold all the creatures he had—except the meat—and everything he thought he would no longer need.

  What scared him was that Black Moon really bought everything he wanted to sell for a fair price—as if it had no demand limit or wealth.

  Upon resolving everything he had to do, he met with Diana's family.

  They were saying goodbye to their acquaintances, before together heading to the eastern gate of the city.

  Upon leaving the city, Alexander placed Diana and her family mounted on Ocean—so that the journey would be much faster—and ran beside them.

  At first, Diana's parents vehemently tried to refuse this idea. They didn't want him to run just for them to ride on his wolf.

  However, Alexander quickly convinced them by explaining that running at that speed was almost training for him and that, otherwise, they might not even arrive in time for the Tournament.

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  As the return trip had no detours or excessive stops, it was perfect for him to practice |Run|.

  Thanks to his high recovery capacity and stamina, he could run for long periods without great exhaustion.

  This, of course, as long as his speed did not exceed his own lung capacity.

  Feeling he could still practice more, Alexander used the skill |Asura| and began to practice with his spear while using |Sweep| to fire several energy slashes at the sky until he started to get tired.

  Diana, in turn, took advantage of the trip to alternate between reading the book Alexander gave her about forming a bond with a creature and helping her parents awaken their Ki—which meant teaching them to control their own energy.

  Under their daughter's tutelage, Diana's parents kept practicing during the travel days.

  Her mother demonstrated a good ability to understand the book's content from what she transmitted to her, but it was her father who first managed to feel the flow of his energy.

  Both had their strengths and weaknesses—something natural for humble people who started practicing as adults.

  The consensus among them was that they only did this to gain more quality of life with their daughter.

  They did not aspire to have a vitality like Alexander's, which was practically a monster in quantity and density of energy.

  After spending a few days running at a bearable speed, the group managed to reach Twin City, 2 days before the Imperial Tournament.

  During this time, Alexander managed to maximize his |Run| and |Sweep| skills; Diana managed to finish reading her book; and her parents began to feel their own energy—although it was still just a very vague sensation.

  Upon using the badge token Lucas gave him to avoid the huge lines at the city gates, Alexander and his group managed to quickly enter the city.

  However, upon entering, they found it completely packed and more bustling than it had been in many years.

  Looking at the streets, full of joy and excitement, anyone could tell this would be the city's biggest event in every way.

  From the arena fights to the various attractions, everything occurred in an animated manner, aiming to profit from the Imperial Tournament's movement.

  The city was, therefore, in a festive mood.

  Upon realizing that Alexander was not taking them straight to the academy, Diana called him: "Alexander, where are we going?"

  "The destination remains the same," assured Alexander. "I'm just making a small detour to first pass through the commercial area."

  "Why?" asked Diana, confused. "Do we need something?"

  "It's not that," replied Alexander. "It's because the city's largest betting house is there—and I want to see how much they are paying for my victory."

  "Then we will go with you," said Diana.

  "But don't bet on me," replied Alexander, looking mainly at Diana. "I obviously plan to win, but even I don’t know if I’ll succeed. This event will have several 'monsters' from all corners of the Empire ready to devour each other in pursuit of victory."

  As soon as he arrived at the betting house, Alexander left Ocean at the door and had to separate from the others due to confidentiality issues and other rules.

  When looking for his name on the large betting board for the Imperial Tournament, Alexander discovered that the house was paying 250:1 on him as the tournament winner. That was because he still had odds.

  Some of the competitors weren't even a viable bet. The house wouldn't even speculate on such probabilities.

  "Good afternoon, sir. Which bet would you like to place today?" asked the attendant the moment Alexander arrived at the counter.

  "Everything on Alexander Ocean for the winner of the Imperial Tournament," replied Alexander as he placed, literally, all his money on the counter.

  He himself didn't know exactly how much he had—much less bothered to count so many different coins—but he knew the total sum was around a little less than 24 large black diamond coins.

  "..." Attendant. "Could you confirm your bet, please?"

  "Everything on Alexander, for the winner of this year's Imperial Tournament," repeated Alexander without any hesitation.

  "..." Attendant.

  The clerk wasn't surprised to see him confirm his bet, she was startled.

  Still, it was her job, and she followed protocol: registered the bet, and notified her superiors as soon as she could.

  After they signed a double promissory note as a guarantee of the bet—one for the betting house and one for the bettor—Alexander returned to the betting house lobby to meet with Diana's family.

  However, the moment they reunited and left the betting house, he saw that the Imperial Tournament probability board had changed: his name was no longer there.

  Leaving this matter aside, Alexander simply went to the academy, where there were restrictions on people entering.

  Yet—just as happened at the city gate—the doors opened the moment he showed his valuable "references."

  "Maybe I should get one of these forged for when I need to return this," Alexander joked internally upon seeing how useful that badge was.

  Back at his house, Alexander showed the place to Diana's parents—calm about not needing to worry about the money he had bet.

  Debt-free and able to earn more as an adventurer, he settled onto the living room sofa and lay down without a care.

  "Sorry for the inconvenience of staying in your room," said Diana's mother.

  "I already said not to worry," replied Alexander. "Adventurers are used to sleeping on the floor if necessary, much less on a sofa."

  "Then I can only thank you again," smiled Diana's mother.

  "It's not necessary," said Alexander. "You received me so well at your house... This is the least I can do. Make yourselves at home."

  Having not much to do and recovering extremely quickly, Alexander spent the remaining days before the tournament just resting, walking around the city, and helping Diana's parents awaken their Ki.

  When the day of the Imperial Tournament arrived, everyone woke up early, got ready, and went to the tournament, which would be hosted in the academy's main arena.