Infinite Realm

"I will now announce the results for the top 10 spots."

Everybody quietened down as they waited for Kolin to make the announcements.

"10th place, Blue Flame with 852 points..." 

As Kolin spoke, the scroll in mid-air updated itself at roughly the same speed and time as it took Kolin to finish his words.

Kolin continued all the way from 10th till he got to the fifth place where he suddenly paused for awhile.

"Now, the top 5."

The atmosphere became increasingly heavy as the audience; both players and NPCs, held their breaths as they waited for the results.

"5th place, Floating Mirage with 1201 points."

Floating Mirage was stunned a she heard the scores. His score from the previous round was 1166 points and since he has failed to forge the scythe, he wasn't expecting to get anything and had decided to give up straight from the start. Yet somehow, he had actually gained 41 points.

"In 3rd place, Green Thorns with 1345 points."

Unlike the rest, excluding Sato and Handel, Green Thorns had managed to produce an artifact with roughly 62% similarity with Halocles' Scythe. While it was still categorised as a failure, they were still rewarded for their effort with 93 points added to their previous score. With that, Green Thorns had temporarily surpassed Sato and Handel to take first place.

After Kolin had called out the scores for the top 5, excluding second and first place, he paused for awhile again with a sigh, starving the curiosity of the audience as they wondered who was first place.

After 5 seconds of silence, which felt like 5 years for the audience, Kolin called out the remaining results.

"At second place with a grand total of 1425 points and first place with a total of 1444 points are Handel Gretkart and Cloudsmith respectively."

Since Kolin had called both spots at the same time, the audience was barely able to react a second after he was done, but once they did, a loud cheer broke out among the players and the NPCs.

The Cloudsmith, the representative of the players on this tournament, had successfully taken first place. 

While some did expect this, they were still anxious about the scores as it seemed that the Blacksmith guild was more titled to Handel's side and Handel looked more proficient with his mystery flame than Sato. All these factors added together made even the most firm supporter of the Cloudsmith waver in their belief that he would take first place. However, the results were officially announced and they could finally rejoice for the success of their champion.

"How?" 

Handel stood facing the scroll with shocked eyes.

'How did I lose?'

From the written test all the way to the third and final round of the practicals Handel had been continuously living under Sato's shadow. No matter how he performed, the Cloudsmith remained first and this began affecting his confidence. It was only until the third round where Handel felt he had a chance to rise above his opponent that he was finally calm. However, this sense of relief only lasted for awhile as it was revealed that the Cloudsmith also had a mystery flame and one slightly better than his at that.

It was at that moment that Handel's mentality had shattered. The last drag of confidence and hope he had in taking first place was destroyed, and he had almost messed up his workpiece because of that. 

Now seeing the results with his two eyes, Handel felt like he was banished to a bottomless abyss, where all his senses were turned off. He couldn't hear the cheers and exclamations of the audience or even this beside him. He couldn't see anything other than the name that was above his on the scroll. He couldn't feel the air from the bodies of those rushing past him to congratulate Sato. All he could see was the two names on the scroll and all he could hear were the words that came out from Kolin's mouth.

He had lost.

"Congratulations." 

Floating Mirage faced Sato with mixed expressions. While he felt that Sato was supposed to be his rival, he had developed a certain level of admiration for him since Sato was able to make a stand and beat the NPC's champion.

"Thanks." Sato replied him.

Just like Floating Mirage, he felt thatbthe relationship between them was a bit strange so it was quite difficult conversing with him.

"I know we've had our differences but you're welcome to join the League of Hammers anytime you want. Even if you don't wish to, we can still work together sometime." Floating Mirage said.

"That's great. No problem." Sato replied.

There was no harm in befriending the head of an organisation like the League of Hammers so Sato didn't shun Floating Mirage away. 

While it was true that Floating Mirage took third place among the players, he still made an impressive performance. If not for Green Thorns who was secretly raised by Emperor's Might, as well as himself, Floating Mirage would have been number one among the players. His skill was undeniable and unlike Sato, who would have to focus on dungeons and levelling up soon, Floating Mirage was a full-time blacksmith, so it was only a matter of time before he surpassed Sato.

Having such a figure with a massive potential close to him wouldn't be a bad idea no matter how one looked at it.

Apart from Floating Mirage, the other players who participated in the tournament had also walked forward and congratulated Sato, while attempting to form a relationship with him. Even the NPCs weren't left out of this and for a moment, Sato was crowded by different people. However, there was one figure that didn't come forward to congratulate him and that was the third placed Green Thorns.

Originally, Sato wouldn't take note of this but with Floating Mirage having congratulated him, Sato recalled the image of the other cloaked blacksmith who performed and wondered where 'he' was.

Just as Sato was locked in that train of thought, Kolin walked towards him without any expression on his face.

"Come with me."

Kolin's emotionless voice sounded in Sato's ears before his figure turned around and departed just as fast as he arrived.