2261  Start the Compet.i.tion

The second graders are all excited.

They are all geared up and ready to tackle this new challenge. The atmosphere is tense, but also festive at the same time. At least, until the tournament is over, the Deans, Elders and the people behind them will go to any extent to protect this status quo.

Of course, there could be many tragedies in the tournament, but no one goes into this tournament thinking that they would die.

They all go into it hoping that they would win and shower in glory and praise.

The compet.i.tions are all going to happen one by one. There is no parallel compet.i.tions going on like it happened with the freshmen. And the first compet.i.tion is of weapon making. This compet.i.tion is a lot more complicated compared to the freshmen tournament.

In the biggest forge available in the Gambler academy, all the weaponsmiths gathered. They all have their own individual furnace and standard equipment. The compet.i.tion is being conducted almost with the same standards as the final tournament.

So, the rules and privileges are similar.

The elder in charge of the Department of Weaponry came on to the stage and looked at them. He is an old man with bulky figure. His hands are calloused from all the hammering he has done over his life. He had that robust aura around him.

The stage is at the far end of the room.

On either side of the room, there are seats for cultivators. They are like gallery seats of a stadium. The closest to the floor sat the first graders, followed by the second graders who are not partic.i.p.ating in the weapon making contest, followed by the third graders and finally by the fourth graders.

Behind the galleries, the instructors and elders stood calmly.

Up on the elder"s arrival, the crowd calmed down.

"As usual, we will not know exactly what the level of difficulty of the finals will be, but like we did every year, we are going to use the previous year"s contest as a template. Since this time, there is no regional tournament, we can only send three weaponsmiths over for each grade.

That is for the individual compet.i.tion of course. And there is a team compet.i.tion. We are also sending a three-man team.

Both the compet.i.tions will proceed today only.

You can use the special formations for any time taking process and accelerate the processes. Even if you want to anneal something or temper something, you can use the formations related to that. An instructor will help you with operating the formation.

22:40

The same will be provided at the final tournament, so don"t skimp on them.

Now, let"s go through the rules.

You need to make five standard weapons in the given time, only with the materials provided to you. You can use some basic materials that are in the forge"s inventory. A list of those materials is provided to you and they will only be provided to you up on your request.

In the next, few minutes there will be a demonstration of five battle moves performed by five people. Each of them will use a different type of weapon. After watching their performance, you need to make the five weapons that best suit the battle move they are performing.

After you are done, they will once again, use the weapons you made to perform the exact same move. Based on the experience of the wielder, damage dealt, efficiency of the spiritual energy conduction, the durability of the weapon, material usage, time taken, technique and finally aesthetics, the evaluation of the weapon would be made.

Even though the second graders const.i.tute of cultivators from Middle stage of Divine Plane Initiation to Peak Stage of Divine Plane Initiation, they wouldn"t have a separate compet.i.tion.

You all know what you signed up for when you joined the academy. You are going to follow those rules and compete with people stronger than you.

The compet.i.tion will end at noon and you can make as many iterations of weapons as possible until then, but only one weapon of each kind, which means a total of five weapons will be tested from you and they are final.

Does anybody have any questions?"

The elder paused and waited for any questions from the students. And he did get a question alright, only not from one of the students. Instead from an unlikely person in the audience whose face is blushing red from the shame of asking this question.

"Ling Tian?" The elder looked at him with a puzzled expression. It is entirely abnormal for a person like him to ask a question, that too by raising the hand like he is a student.

"How many more minutes can you wait before starting the compet.i.tion? Someone is yet to arrive."

Ling Tian said and only then did the elder notice one of the empty spots. A student of Ling Tian"s is standing beside holding it off for someone.

The Elder frowned. There is indeed a few minutes for the compet.i.tion to start, but he couldn"t comprehend who would be so late, to come to a compet.i.tion like this. And why of all people, Ling Tian will endorse such behavior.

That is also the reason why Ling Tian"s face is blushing red.

"Who is so late to a compet.i.tion?" The Elder asked directly. Many students are murmuring the same thing. However, some fourth graders and student council members in the crowd had some guesses.

"He might be late, but in some ways, he is definitely early to this compet.i.tion. Too early in fact."

Ling Tian said in a low tone.

At that moment…

*SWOOSH*

Sam arrived on Harbinger.

"Sorry, I am late. The administration department is very busy because of the compet.i.tion and they are unable to process my token immediately."

Sam said as he flashed his Grade 2 Token.

The crowd became dead silent.

Sam went to the position that was held for him and placed his token in the slot of the table. That is why he got here late. He recently broke through to the Middle stage of Divine Plane Initiation, which makes him a Grade 2 student.

He is technically eligible for compet.i.tions. But for most of the auxiliary profession compet.i.tions, he needs to submit his token, which supposedly records whatever that is happening at his workstation and a.s.signs it his name for further reference.

So, the admin staff took their sweet time.

Sam ignored the elder and Ling Tian. He ignored all the shocked stares and looked at the student that was holding the place for him.

"What did I miss?"

The student who was one of the few who knew about Sam"s breakthrough explained the rules.

Sam looked at the Elder on the stage and said with a smile.

"Thanks for holding on for me Elder. Please proceed."

The Elder came out of his daze and clapped his hands a couple of times to attract the attention.

"The Demonstration will begin now."

With that, five students got onto the stage. All of them are at the peak of second grade. They each held a different weapon.

A sword, A spear, a battle axe, a hammer, and a dagger.

All standard weapons. Not too complex. Simple and direct.

All five of them stood in front of their respective test dummies. All five dummies are the same. One by one they started attacking.

*SLASH*

The swordsman started first and a number hovered over the test dummy.

"967"

That number indicates the damage absorbed by the test dummy. That number is actually of little consequence. The partic.i.p.ant used his own sword and it is made of all the fancy materials and most of all, it is tailored for him.

The goal of the demo is to watch the move as it was displayed.

Only one move. One proper vertical slash. Nothing complicated. It couldn"t get any simpler than that. Of course, the simpler it is, the easier it is to find mistakes and also the more glaring even the slightest mistakes will become.

The rest of the partic.i.p.ants also demonstrated.

A thrust from the spear.

A hack from the axe.

A direct smash from the hammer.

And two moves from the dagger. One a forehanded slash and the other a backhanded stab. It was all done in one fluid motion, so maybe it could be considered as one move.

"You can now begin."

With that the compet.i.tion began. Everyone accessed the spatial ring that was placed at their workstation to access the materials. They also started examining the list of the auxiliary materials.

One of the students beside Sam looked at him and spoke.

"I know that you are arrogant, but I didn"t know you are this arrogant. You barely entered the school and already broke through. It is one thing that you didn"t wait to solidify your foundation and breakthrough next year, but to think that you would partic.i.p.ate in the compet.i.tion.

You are way in over your head."