"You're lucky we don't use real blades here, asshole."
Zoro stands beside the unconscious baldy and flips him over. Everyone now can see the diagonal red mark that was caused by Zoro's attack. The baldy's clothes that get hit are ripped and the hit mark on his body seems to be quite deep.
Those who see it start doubting that Zoro uses a bamboo sword to make something like this. But they saw that he took that bamboo sword themselves and it's prepared by this training ground, so there's no way it's fake.
"Now, didn't you guys say I need to be taught a lesson? Then why don't you teach it to me? The previous teacher was bad at teaching."
Zoro points at the baldy that is being carried by the training ground staff to the infirmary. The ones who said it now have cold sweat. After all, they are about the same level as that baldy.
Even those who are stronger aren't that much stronger than him. At the very least, they won't be able to defeat that baldy with a single attack like Zoro.
"A-ah, shoot! I forgot to feed my pet cockroach."
Says a guy before immediately storms out of the training ground.
"Oh no! My fish must be cold swimming in the water all day. I need to warm some water for them."
"Would you look at the time? It's already this late. My mom will be angry if I don't go home soon."
"Crap! My stomach hurts. I need to dump my shit quickly."
They somehow made lame excuses and ran away from the fight. Only a few people who didn't make fun of Zoro stay. They are quite dumbfounded by those excuses.
"Alright, so, you want to spar?"
"I would want to. But I'm sure I can't give you a good fight. Or rather, none of us here can fight you at all."
The others nod at that statement, making Zoro scratch the back of his head because now he can't spar against anyone.
"Tsk! And here I thought that people in the Capital are strong. But there's still no one to fight here. What a bummer. Those samurais won't even fight independent swordsmen, so I can't try my skills on them."
It will sound arrogant if other independent swordsmen say it. But everyone has seen that Zoro may have the skill to fight official samurais.
"Ah, there may be a way to fight official samurais if you want."
A young adult suddenly says that when he remembers something. Zoro's eyes sparkle when he hears that, so he asks how he can do that.
The young adult explains that there will be a fighting tournament. It's hosted by the Daimyo, the leader of this country and anyone can participate.
"What's the rewards?"
"Hmm, I think they're 1 million ryo for 1st place, 750 thousand for 2nd place, 500 thousand for 3rd place, and 4th place also still gets a reward of 250 thousand ryo. But most people don't participate for the reward money."
"Oh? Is there another reason?"
"Yes, if they show good skills, they might get scouted and hired by some wealthy people. There were even some samurai masters who picked students from the tournament in the past, and I mean those students were independent swordsmen. They have talents, but couldn't shine because they didn't get proper education. But this is a very rare case and the last time it happened was 8 years ago."
"You said maybe I can fight samurais there, right?"
"That's right. Quite a lot of samurais are joining this yearly tournament. After all, they can show off their skills and maybe they can get promoted if they show how strong they are. Some samurais were even appointed to be the Daimyo's personal guards because of this tournament."
"Heh, so while the reward money is tempting, their real intention is to catch the high-ranking people's attention, huh?"
"Well, high monthly salary and high ranks are better than just 1 time reward."
"Hahaha, true. You can get 1 million in 10 months if your monthly salary is 100 thousand, and that work will last for a long time if you keep your skills maintained."
But even if he says that, Zoro still doesn't want to work for the country or anyone permanently. He will take one time jobs as a mercenary, but he won't work in one place for a long period of time.
That's why he decides to join the tournament purely for the reward money and the joy of fighting strong opponents. He's always curious about official samurais' strength, so this is a good chance to fight them without risking his life.
Zoro asks for more information about the tournament before leaving the training ground. The event will be held in 2 months, so he still has quite plenty of time.
"Guess I can only do what I usually do for the next 2 months. Torao, let's gather more money."
"Sure, you want me to steal for some quick bucks?"
".... We will take mercenary jobs."
"Hmm, I can sneak into rich people's houses and steal some of their money, you know. I'll just take a small amount so they won't notice."
"Let's do that as a last resort. We don't know what kind of security measures those kinds of people have, you know. They might actually have strong ninjas who hide in their houses' ceilings to catch thieves."
"Hmm, right. I don't want to be chased by a country after being labeled as a criminal while we are still weak."
"Yeah, it won't be a problem once we become really strong. But currently we don't have the power to oppose a country, so let's not make big problems."
For the next 2 months, Zoro just does his usual activities. Training, taking jobs, exploring the capital and gathering information.
With more activities taken his time, especially his jobs, Zoro's training becomes much more intense to make sure he'll still get good gains. Sometimes he'll still train while doing jobs as jobs like escorts can take a few days to finish.
He still wears the weights every day and almost never takes them off unless when he takes a bath or shower and when he dumps his shit to avoid dirtying them. Even when sleeping, he doesn't take them off.
After getting more money, he buys 2 more 10 kilogram bars to put in his arm weights. So now he has a total of 80 kilograms of weight on his body that he carries every day.
He will still lift big logs and boulders while wearing those weights in his training days. People will call him a maniac if they see how intense his training is.
But he always trains in the forest outside the city, so no one has ever seen his training. People rarely leave the warmth of the city to enter the cold forest for no reason, after all, so he can hide there to train without any disturbance.
Also, he can get some free food in the forest. Now he can hunt without the need to use traps. He just uses his sword now because he can attack from afar with his sword.
Currently, he is still trying to make flying energy blades without using chakra. But to do that, he needs to be able to cut stones without chakra. He can already cut wood and bones, and he almost can cut stones just using his swordsmanship now.
Instructor Moss Head told him to be 'One with the Swords' which is quite difficult to understand. He thinks he needs some stimulations to understand that, so he hopes there will be people stronger than him there to force him to use everything he has.
Then finally, the time for the tournament finally comes.
People from all over the country are coming to the Capital to watch this yearly tournament.
A neutral country like the Land of Iron that doesn't involve themselves with the shinobi world is peaceful enough to hold a fighting tournament when the shinobis are killing each other.
It's also a way to calm their people actually. By holding a tournament during the shinobi world war, they are telling their people that their country is safe and sound.
Though Zoro is sure that their border guards are working their ass off to prevent the war from entering their country's territory.
Well, it's none of his concern because it's their job. He just needs to get ready for the tournament so he can win it. Fighting strong people is great, but he also wants the reward money.
"Alright, let's kick some ass today."
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Chapter 40. After Tragedy
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