Infinite Realm

"Glad to see you all have the strength to resume the second round." Kolin smiled as he spoke to the contestants gathered before him.

"Keep in mind that you can quit halfway or whenever you want. I don't mind. In fact, it would be best you do so now so that the guild can save resources."

"The heck is wrong with this old man." 

Some players began to murmur.

As the organizer of this event, Kolin should be more encouraging of the contestants, in hopes that he could draw out their innate potential and ignite it with his words. However, the old fellow went ahead to do the opposite. By mocking the contestants, they would, at first, be annoyed and try to improve in order to prove him wrong but once they fail to do so, most of them would quit and the number of participants left would continuously drop with each contest.

Obviously, some began to wonder why he did so and a few of them even believed it was exactly as Kolin had explained; to save resources.

"The second forging test isn't much different from the previous one. You have to create the equipment on the blueprint but have only 3 sets worth of materials. Unlike the previous blueprint, this one has the potential to reach the Low-tier Rare-Steel rank, even though it's just a 30% chance. You have 2 hours and success depends on your ability to manipulate the materials to achieve this, so I wish you all good luck. You can begin now."

The blueprint before Sato was that of a classic pentagon-shaped shield. It didn't have any name nor any special features that could make it above-average. Everything depended on the blacksmith including the abilities and features of the product.

Grabbing a pair of tongs, Sato placed the entirety of the main material into a crucible and moved the crucible over to the furnace. Normally, blacksmiths would only melt the required amount for one work but Sato did for the three works. The reason he did so was to simply save time as if Sato were to melt the metal set by set, the entire 2 hours of time would be spent on melting the metal.

  Sato left the crucible in flames for about 45 minutes before he proceeded to extract enough molten metal for one shield and left the rest at a constant temperature. During the time it was in the furnace, he had already prepared the other materials as well as the equipment he would need for forging.

The main component for the shield was a 2-star metal called Greysteel and the second most important component was a high-quality 2-star material called Blue Pod. Unlike most metals, Blue Pod was a cold metal found at the bottom of the ocean so manipulating it with high heat could affect the characteristics of the metal, therefore it was usually worked on with cold-forging methods. However, the metal had to be mixed in with the molten Greysteel to produce the final alloy but due to its 'allergy' to heat, this was a problem for most blacksmiths.

The blueprint didn't explain how one could solve this issue and the problem was left for the contestants to figure it out. There were quite a few methods for them to use but only those who had studied them would know so.

'Let's try this one.'

The method Sato had chosen was one he had read about in the Caventry's library as well as the easiest method to use. It was known as 'cold metal mana infusion' and it was only possible thanks to the existence of mana.

The way cold metal mana infusion worked was to put the molten metal in a special furnace that could easily and quickly change temperature and maintain the temperature such that the metal remained molten. As for the cold metal, it would be inscribed with special runes that would help it increase its temperature at a slow rate and would then be placed into the crucible with the molten metal. The result of this would be that the damage due to high heat would be reduced as the metal slowly melts.

When the cold metal reaches a point where it seems that its characteristics are about to be ruined, or when it's about to become a liquid, the rune shatters while also compressing the cold metal into a jelly-like state and spreading it around the molten metal with its remnant force.

Once the diffusion process is satisfactory, the blacksmith would immediately change the temperature of the furnace, bringing it down to a point where the new mixture isn't exactly a solid but is neither a complete liquid, maintaining a pseudo-solid state.

The alloy would then be immediately placed into a mold and the temperature dropped once again till it cools off and becomes a solid.

The difficulties in this process lay in three steps. The first was in the development of the rune. The rune had to be strong enough and powerful to be able to withstand high temperatures while still keeping the cold metal safe from that. At the same time, it should also be able to hold enough mana as a magic crystal wouldn't be placed alongside it into the furnace. Finally, the rune had to have the ability to break down while still being effective to a certain level and producing a compressive force that would act on the cold metal. 

Sato was aware of quite a few runes that could do such but the problem lay in drawing them. He wasn't a Scribe like Xue Yan and he didn't focus on rune-smithing a lot, so it would be a difficult task for him to pull off.

The second problem lay in the diffusion process. The blacksmith would have to be fully focused on the work as any mishap could result in everything becoming a waste. The jelly-like cold metal would have to spread throughout the molten metal, but during this process, as it has lost a majority of the protection from the rune, its characteristics are constantly being affected by the heat from the molten metal. The blacksmith would have to depend on their instinct to know when the diffusion was enough and when the characteristics are about to be entirely destroyed so they can avoid it, otherwise, the entire alloy would become a waste. This was the hardest part of the entire process as the focus required was extraordinary.

Finally, having to change the temperature and switch the alloy from the crucible to the mold at a rapid pace was a problem for some, but compared to the other two issues, this was the least to be worried about.

While this method sounded stressful and difficult, this was the easiest way to truly combine a cold metal with weak heat resistance to a regular metal that required to be worked on under a high temperature.

"Such impressive skills."

While the arena that the tournament was hosted in was an open space, the top parts of the stands were isolated from the rest and made into private rooms for VIPs. The rooms were each shielded by a tinted glass window that prevented outsiders from spying on the personnel within. 

Inside one of these private rooms were two seated individuals; a young man and a middle-aged man, together with 3 other people that stood behind them. The one who had just spoken was the middle-aged man, and the complementary tone in his voice was very obvious to a listener's ears.

"I told you didn't I? He's an amazing talent." The young man stated.

If Sato was here, he would be able to recognise this character easily. It was the young noble Galvin, that he had met just two days ago.

"His methods are indeed impressive and eccentric but it's too soon to judge him as a genius. We have to see whether he can actually maintain his spot ahead of young Handel." The middle-aged man stroked his beard.

"You don't need to worry about that. Whether he takes first or not isn't really necessary, just as long as he can do the work for us. As long as we have him on our side, as chances of success would definitely increase.." Galvin said as a glint flashed in his eyes.