Chapter 102: Holding Back

With Hyun signaling the official start of the first round, almost all of the participants went into a frenzy, gazing at the blueprints on their desks for a bit before hastily grabbing the metal they needed before chucking them into the furnace beside them. Because of that, it did not take long for a few of them to spew out profanities before retrieving the metal they chucked into the furnace with a pair of tongs, realizing that they had grabbed the wrong type of metal.

Watching this sight unfold a couple of times around him, Valyr tuned out the noise surrounding him as he focused his attention on the blueprint on his desk, reading through it as the system registered the blueprint and committed it to his memory. After that, he retrieved the metal needed for the blueprint and chucked it into his furnace, fanning the flames for a bit to slightly speed up the heating process.

As he waited for the metal to reach the optimal temperature for hammering, Valyr went ahead and looked through the blueprint given to him once more. "As long as I more or less follow the instructions on this blueprint, I'll be able to forge the weapon 'Iron Dagger'."

"I wonder where the others got the idea that the first round is all about reaching the third blueprint as fast as possible." Muttering these words, Valyr watched the other participants around him try their hand at forging the first blueprint, with most of them finding their footing after coming to the realization that the first round wasn't a race against time. However, some of them still thought they had to finish as fast as possible, causing them to commit more mistakes as time passed.

Eventually, by the time Valyr had retrieved the metal he had chucked into the furnace, the first participant had finally been escorted out of the tournament, being disqualified due to the fact that the participant panicked so much to the point they wasted all of the materials given to them. Watching as the participant made the walk of shame, Valyr inwardly shook his head before returning his attention to the hot metal on top of his anvil.

Ttang! Ttang!

Swinging the forging hammer he had become familiar with during the explanation for the first round, Valyr quickly found a rhythm to work with, swiftly shaping the metal on his anvil into a dagger. At times, he would have to stop the hammering process, placing the incomplete dagger into the furnace to make it malleable again, taking it out sometime later to hammer on it once more.

And with that kind of routine, Valyr made progress in forging the dagger, the sound of metal colliding against metal reverberating throughout the area as everyone else was engrossed in the same process. Some of them hammered their metal at a faster rate, while some of them took their time. Nevertheless, the current atmosphere had been filled with that sonorous sound, putting the audience into a trance as they silently watched the participants complete the blueprints.

"Done." At some point, one of the participants was finally finished forging their dagger, quenching it into a nearby barrel of oil as a volunteer proctor appeared before them. Once the volunteer proctor certified that the quality of the forged dagger was sufficient, a second blueprint was placed on the participant's desk, prompting the latter to repeat the process once more.

Naturally, with a participant now beginning on the second blueprint, the other participants could not help but feel pressured to speed up, causing small mistakes to be more pronounced on their forged products the more they hammered at it. Although they had been able to finish their daggers earlier compared to the rest, once they heard that their products did not meet the minimum level of quality that allowed them to proceed to the next blueprint, it was only then did they realize that they should have continued with what they already had going.

Unfortunately, there was no medicine for regret.

With that kind of atmosphere enveloping all of the participants, the first round continued to progress, some proceeding onto the second blueprint, and some being disqualified even before they could reach the second blueprint. Due to the experience Valyr had with forging in his past life, it was not a problem for him to finish his first piece of equipment, with the second blueprint being placed on his desk soon after.

"A chestplate, huh." Registering the new blueprint to memory, Valyr swiftly began on his second piece of equipment, thanking the fact that he had been tasked to craft armor more than weapons in his previous life. With that, combined with his current skills as a True Prodigious Blacksmith, he had the confidence to finish the second blueprint, eventually doing so while more participants were disqualified.

Receiving the third blueprint, Valyr could not help but raise his eyebrow as he checked the information written on it. After that, he shifted his gaze to the top three contenders, noticing that they were all close to finishing the third blueprint. "I'm quite surprised they're not having a problem with crafting this one, considering there's a unique mechanism integrated into this weapon. But then again, I don't have problems with it either."

Compared to the first two blueprints, aside from the fact that the third blueprint resulted in a Common+ grade weapon, it also contained a unique mechanism, being a broadsword that had the ability to inject poison into its enemies. With this in mind, Valyr decided to take it a bit slower than usual, making sure that the unique mechanism on the broadsword worked every time.

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Nevertheless, with how he did not face any difficulties in crafting the unique mechanism, he still finished at an above average speed compared to the others, being one of the few dozen people that already gained the rights to move onto the second round.

Though Valyr knew that he could stop at this point and wait for the second round to start, he went ahead and asked one of the volunteer proctors to give him the fourth blueprint, illustrating a pair of Common+ grade boots. Placing the metals needed to craft the boots in the furnace, he looked around his surroundings once more, quickly noticing that over half of the participants had already been disqualified.

"Aside from the fact that I have the experience needed to craft these equipment without a problem, my forging skills also give me a great advantage." As he waited for the metals to reach the optimal temperature, he went ahead and checked the skill he was using to its greatest limit at the moment, its description screen appearing in his mind.

[True Prodigious Equipment Creation] (Level 1/10)

Rarity: Common

A normal prodigy takes the norm and ascends it to a level few can reach. On the other hand, a true prodigy takes the norm and transforms it into something greater, becoming something even prodigies yearn to achieve.

This skill allows the user to craft any piece of equipment up to Uncommon grade, as long as they have the blueprint and the materials available to do so. Due to the user being a true prodigy, all attempts at forging are 3% more likely to become successful.

"Although success rate isn't something that could be viewed on the status screen, the fact that I have skills that increase it is definitely helping out," Valyr muttered to himself. "On top of that, I can craft equipment up to Uncommon grade, whereas I can only craft Common grade stuff with the normal equipment creation skill."

"Then again, even though I have the ability to craft Uncommon grade equipment, I'll tap out once I finish crafting these boots." As he came to this decision, he could not help but let out a light sigh, his head turning in the direction of where Tristan was. From what Tristan knew, Valyr only had the ability to craft Common+ grade equipment at most, with that fact already giving the former great shock.

Adding on the fact that he knew Valyr from before the latter had even ascended to Rank 1, if Valyr showed that he had the ability to craft Uncommon grade equipment without a problem, it wouldn't be surprising if Tristan became suspicious of him. With that, it also wouldn't be surprising if Tristan spread word of this feat throughout the village, causing everyone in the village to question his true origins.

Of course, Valyr knew that such thinking teetered on the edge of paranoia, being certain that the village would instead become joyous of the fact Valyr was able to do so much more. But after experiencing so much in his past life, especially with the final battle opening his eyes to the reality of human nature, he decided to err on the side of extreme caution for now.

In any case, it wouldn't be the first time he had done something like this. After all, his entire journey so far revolved around that mindset.

He just didn't show it on the surface.

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