Infinite Realm

S/N  Name          Number    Score

1.    Cloudsmith      778        265

"A score of 265 points. The heck?"

All the players who glanced at the scoreboard exclaimed.

It should be known that the total score for the written exam was 280 points, with the 80 objectives being worth 160 points while the 40 other questions were worth a total of 120 points. Out of the 280 points, Sato had achieved a high score of 265 points; just 15 points away from a perfect score. This was with the average appearing numbers from the 5th place below being below 200 points. 

The second place on the list had a total score of 255 points, which was 10 points behind Sato and 25 points away from a perfect score, and this was from a character known as Handel Gretkart, an NPC who was said to be the grandson of one of the Master blacksmiths in Black Rock City as well as the favourite to win the contest.

As for the next highest-ranked player, it was a pseudonym called Green Thorns, which also happened to be the insignia the player branded their products with. The player had a total score of about 232 points, and while that was far from Sato's 265 points, it was still enough to earn them 4th place on the rankings.

Not only was Sato surprised since he has never heard that name but all the other player blacksmiths as well as those from the League of Hammers were stunned. They could understand the Cloudsmith taking first place as he was the reputed and undisputed best player blacksmith in the whole of Black Rock Province, but for an unknown blacksmith by the name of Green Thorns to take the second place amongst places was incredible.

'He's probably a guild-born.' Sato thought as he stared at the name.

The title of 'guild-born' was given to lifestyle class players that were trained by their guilds specifically for those classes. Since they had a lot of training and resources focused on them, their performances were usually better than that of independent players. Also, as most guilds like to keep their resources (both human and non-human) a secret from others, it was understandable for guild-borns to not be popular in the player community unless they're finally revealed to the public.

'I didn't expect the guilds to take this so seriously as to bring out their men. Looks like I have to take this more seriously.'

In truth, Sato could have scored better than the 265 points he got in the written test. If he wanted, he would have gotten a perfect score since most of the questions in the written test were stuff he read from the Caventry's library. There was also the fact that reading and recalling what one has read in a VR game was much different than in reality. 

In real life, a person would have to read, memorise and understand an article to be able to get a perfect score on a test regarding the said piece. But in IR, when a player reads a book, it's stored in their interface and they could easily recall things with the help of the interface. The only reason why other players didn't do so well was that they weren't familiar with the questions asked and so, they couldn't get them right even with the interface guide. 

For Sato however, he was familiar with all the questions having gone through both the blacksmith guild's library in Riverdale and the Caventry's library. He only lost 15 marks because Sato had intentionally failed the questions. He didn't want to attract too much attention to himself as a perfect score was more eye-catching than first place. Even the NPCs in the game would wonder whether he had cheated or something so Sato simply decided to avoid that fiasco by intentionally failing a few questions.

"Now that we're done with the written test, let's proceed to the main part of the tournament; the practicals." Kolin announced, ignoring the results displayed on the light screen in mid-air.

"All participants kindly move towards the blue circle with your tag number on it."

Just as they were about to be confused by Kolin's statement, the NPCs and players participating in the tournament noticed blue circles appear close to them. Each of the blue circles had a 3 digit number on them which signified a contestant's tag number. Sato, alongside all the other contestants, walked towards their numbers and stood on top of them. The tag numbers were spaced such that there were over two metres of distance between each contestant.

As they were about to wonder what was going on, Kolin clapped his hands together.

"Appear."

Blue flashes occurred throughout the entire platform and once they faded away, a bunch of tables and furnaces had appeared right in front of every contestant.

'Space magic.'

Since Sato was quite close to the blue light, he was able to feel a familiar energy pulse which he had only felt from Arman's teleportation spell. Adding that to the mysterious appearance of the equipment in front of him, Sato concluded that spatial magic was employed just then.

"The blacksmith guild really knows how to go all out. Just teleporting these few items would cost them a lot of magic crystals." An NPC close by commented on the phenomenon.

Spells required mana which was the foundation of all things mystical and magical. Innately, mages could manipulate mana in the surroundings to cast a spell by using the mana stored within themselves. To achieve a similar effect without the presence of a mage, a rune would be needed to replace the mage while a catalyst such as a magic crystal would be used to replace the mana stored within the mage. The more complex the spell, the more complex the time and more powerful the catalyst has to be, or in the case where quality cannot be afforded, the more quantity of magic crystals would be needed.

Space spells were naturally complex and required quite a lot of mana to activate, and for one on a large scale such as this, the number of magic crystals needed was a lot. So it was right to say that the Blacksmith guild had spent a lot just to make this tournament possible.

*Clap*

Following another clap from Kolin, 100 puppets appeared from the outside with bags hanging on them, each puppet passed through the tables before the contestants while dumping materials and forging equipment on them for the contestants to make use of. This only took roughly 3 minutes after which all the tables before the contestants were filled with hammers and materials, as well as a blueprint of the object to be forged.

"I believe that what you have to do at this point should be very obvious to you. You have just 1 and a half hours to create the equipment on the blueprint. There are enough materials on the table for 3 tries and that's all that you get. You're expected to use all the materials so even if you complete it on your first try, you have to make two more.. The number of equipment you make as well as the quality of the product would determine the number of points you get in this round. Now, begin!"

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