13 The Heavenly Roar And Beauty 1 (1/2)
Editor: c_pantoja619
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Hearing Astra's score in the Alchemy tests, all the elders present there were dumbfounded. The score that Astra had scored was in some examination in the guild outside the sect then this news would have stirred chaos in the entire city, perhaps even the entire headquarter would have stirred into chaos. But they were still really happy and excited at it as their sect would be getting a genius whom they could nurture.
After all these emotions and feelings ran through the elders hearts, another elder came from among them, he was the blacksmith elder, Elder Jian. He was the next to walk to the arena.
”Young man, Astra, I, Elder Jian, am the elder of the Blacksmith Hall of the sect.
I'll be in charge of conducting your blacksmiths test. Before we begin the test, I would like to clarify how the test would be conducted. The test is divided into two parts, first is that you have to appraise the materials, as it is to know that without decent materials, no blacksmith can forge any decent equipment, be it armor or weapons, then there is the forging test. For this test you'll be provided with materials and you'll have to forge either armor or weapons any of your liking. But remember that you'll have to forge a Normal Intermediate tier Weapon or any equipment. Are you ready for the next test then?” [Elder Jian]
”Yes, elder I'm ready for the test.” [Astra]
Astra replied almost immediately as he knew that he was doing all this to make things easier of him in the sect.
Seeing Astra nod at this, the elder flicked his wrist and a metal material of some kind appeared in his hand.
”With this the first part of the Blacksmith test begins. Here is the material that you have to appraise, you have to determine the constituents of the material.” [Elder Jian]
With that Astra went to the elder and received the material to appraise it and determine its characteristics.
At first look the material looked like any other ordinary iron ingot but on further inspection one could see that there were some metals and other materials mixed in it.
Astra understood that it was too difficult for him to appraise the material with the limited knowledge and no experience on blacksmithing, so he took Leilana's help in appraising the material. He one by one wrote down it constituents. After writing all the constituents, hepassed the paper to the elder.
Elder Jian looked at the answer and was quite surprised to see that all of the constituents of the material mentioned in the paper were correct, he was more shocked with his eye of discernment as he had just touched the material and stared at it for nothing more than 10 minutes and he wrote all the constituents correctly without missing a single one or an incorrect one.
After some time Elder Jian calmed himself and said.
”You pass the first test, now it's time for the second test. In this test you'll have to forge a weapon or an equipment of your liking. But remember that you'll be give only an hour to complete this test. Now let's begin with the second test.” [Elder Jian]
With this Elder Jian waved his hand and few guard came to the arena some carrying a table with the materials that could be used for forging and some came carrying a portable furnace and forging equipment.
The guards put the furnace and the materials on the arena and left.
After this Astra walked up to the furnace to check the furnace and the forging equipment in order to familiarize himself with them, all thanks to his Instant Mastery, then he walked to the table where the materials were placed and started examining them. There were all kinds of materials placed on the table, from metals to durable bones and fangs.
While he was inspecting the materials, his attention fell on a certain item. This item was a claw bone, but not any ordinary claw bone but a dragons claw bone. He decided to use it as the core material for the weapon he would be forging. After deciding as the core material, he started pondering 'Which weapon should I forge? Should I forge a sword, a dagger or an armor?'. After some time of pondering Astra finally decided on to something 'Let's forge a dagger. I really don't have much time to forge any other weapon and among all of them a dagger seems most appropriate considering my experience and the time I have.'. deciding on to this Astra looked of something that would work as a durable material for the hilt, and found a heavy metal ingot and a thick leather among the materials.
Seeing Astra pick the claw bone and a metal and leather, Elder Jian was shocked. As the claw bone was, according to him, the most worthless material among all the materials present there. He had only placed it among them so that it could be useful later in making something.
”Astra! Are you really fine with choosing that claw bone? It is the most worthless material among all the materials present here. If you want you can choose another material. There are many more here that are better that that claw bone you've got there.” [Elder Jian]
Hearing Elder Jian's word, Astra was quite bewildered. He thought 'Does the elder not know what kind the claw bone it is?'. After some time he spoke.
”Elder Jian, this claw bone is no ordinary claw bone you think of it to be. You'll know what it is once the forging is complete.