The Craftsman Test

[Arius POV]

Waking up this morning, I felt much better. A good night's sleep at a fancy inn, plus the amazing food and meeting Stella yesterday went a long way to help calm me down. Now, I felt ready to go and take the test.

After a light breakfast and some basic exercises to get me warmed up, Master and I were off to the Craftsman Guild. Big Brother Jaque wasn't coming with us because he said something about having a practice fight with Stella and left much earlier than us. I wished I could have seen them fight but I had to get this Craftsman title first. It was much more important.

'Once, I get my craftsman card, I'll be able to easily sell my weapons to get a lot of money. With the money, I can make more weapons and start saving money to get alchemy and engraving lessons. So I have to get this card.'

With my motivation at an all-time high, we arrive at the Craftsman Guild. It was similar to Master Doherty's workshop except that there was a symbol of a hammer on its front sign. Walking inside, I see to the right many rows of displayed weapons, bows, spears, rods, and swords. You name it, it would be here.

The Guild was busy with many people, although most of them looked like local adventurers looking to buy some new weapons. In front of us was a reception where I could see some craftsmen coming in with their newly made weapons and items.

After informing one of the receptionists of our reason for visiting, they bring me to a large room full of different forging tools of all shapes and sizes. In the room, I notice that there are five different furnaces as well as a few desks and chairs at the side of the room.

In addition to me, there were four other people waiting in the room as well. They all looked to be around ten to twelve years old and were quite a bit tall than me.

Just as I joined them, I see three people coming from a different door. Two men and one woman, they were all wearing craftsman clothing and the older man even had a badge hung on their chest. His badge shone with a silver glint and had five golden stars engraved on it as well.

'Woah, he has a badge."

The normal craftsman that's affiliated with the Craftsman Guild usually only gets a special card to signify their rank and affiliation but those who are exceptionally talented, skilled or have earned themselves a considerable reputation have a chance to be awarded a badge that will act as their card instead. Called the Badge of Earth and Flame, anyone who wears it is treated with great respect.

As the three judges walk toward their chairs, the older man and the woman sit down while the younger man stays standing.

"We will begin the test immediately. For this test, you may make any weapon or item you wish within the given time limit. Your final product must be a copper-ranked item with at least 50% percent efficiency. You may find your materials in the back room and you'll have three hours to complete your item. Any questions?"

As the man finished speaking, I could feel the tension in the room but it seems like no one had any questions. If anything, it looked like they all knew what was going to be the test.

'Big Brother Jaque sometimes you could be a little help right?'

As I moulded in my sorrow, the man speaks up once again seeing that no one had any questions.

"Alright, since no one has any questions. I will highlight some rules that you must follow. One, no cheating, we will catch you. Two, no disturbing other examinees... Hmm, that's it you may begin!"

Immediately, after that, everyone started to rush toward the back room to get the material they needed. I didn't rush, we had plenty of time. Not to brag but Master Doherty told me that I forged and hammered extremely quickly. He said even he could probably only match my speed. I have to give all the credit to my spectacles for allowing me to easily learn to pinpoint where I needed to hit to let the mana flow more evenly.

'So what are you going to make?'

'Probably, just a sword.'

Replying to Dakria and choosing my furnace, I take all tools that I needed to forge a simple sword. It's the thing that I've to practice the most. While I only practiced the sharpening step a few times after Master showed me. I should be able to do an ok job at least.

As the rest of the examinees start coming out of the back room with the ore of their desired choice, I quickly get up and got into the room to see if I can find what I needed. Looking around, I see many shelves of different materials from monster bones and tendons to bags of metals. With my spectacles, I see a beautiful array of colours coming from each precious material.

'Man, I wish I could take these home, they're all cool ore I saw in the book Master Doherty gave me.'

'Focus Arius! Stealing is definitely not allowed!'

'B-But'

'You're already wasting time!'

'...Fine...'

After dedicating myself to becoming a craftsman for many months, I slowly developed a curiosity about all the different materials that can be used. Sadly, near Erlabyn, there was only a small array of different materials that I could gain access to so I never really satiated this curiosity. Now, suddenly seeing so many made me what to use them all.

Reluctantly pulling my gaze away from the monster materials, I take an ore that glowed green from a bag.

'I can never go wrong with Karthin.'

"LEAVE!"

Hearing a shout in the main room, I walk out from the back room with my lump of Karthin. Curiously, I see someone being pulled away by some guards and being yelled at by the man that gave us the instructions. Walking over to the examinee who was next to my furnace, I ask him what was going on.

"What happened?"

"He brought in an alright refined piece of Karthin to smelt."

I grimace as I see the consequence of cheating and examining the slab of metal that was the in examiner's hand, I could tell that it was pretty refined.

'It's pretty refined but some of my works have more even mana.'

Once the commotion was over, I open up my already lit furnace and place the Karthin inside. After using Karthin for so long, I know that it will take at least a few minutes for the ore to reach the proper temperature so in the meantime I casually look at the other examinees' items. Other than the guy that just got kicked out, there was a lady who was making karthin arm guards and two people making weapons from enhanced iron.

There are many ores that do not naturally emit mana, iron being one of them. However, iron is extremely easy to work with and is very common so by adding in mana dust like Fonotavic Dust, they will be 'enhanced' and emit some mana, of course not as much as normal mana-emitting metals.

'Arius, the furnace.'

'Oh yeah!'

With a quick reminder from Dakria, I take a look at the ore that has been heating up in my furnace. Taking a little poke at it with the tongs, I let it rest for a little longer before taking it out. Then taking it out, I quickly bring it to my anvil and start hammering it with the hammer.

Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang

Very soon, the room was filled with banging as everyone got finished heating up their metal. After about forty minutes of continuous hammering, I got my piece of karthin into the state and shape that was comfortable with me. For this test, I decided to make a simple dagger instead as there was a set time limit. So in turn, I took a smaller piece of Karthin and required a bit less time to hammer it.

Checking the time, I see that I had a bit less than an hour left. I hold my dull dagger and look for the belt sander that I was used to.

'Wait, where is it?.. Oh there!'

Hidden along on side of the room, there were a couple of sanders. Taking the closest one to me, I do a rough mark on the dagger for where I want the edge to be. Then I turn it on and start sanding.

Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

After doing it a few times, I noticed that once an edge is put on a blade. The mana itself doesn't sharpen, instead, the areas where the edge allows for more mana to flow out, resulting in a sharper edge as mana itself has the characteristic of amplifying whatever it's in contact with.

Another thing I noticed was that when putting an edge on the blade, I just need to take my time. So I spend a good forty minutes slowly sanding away until I got a decent edge. I was running out of time so I needed to pro

'Alright, know for the handle.'

To be perfectly honest, making the handle is probably my worst skill in terms of sword making. As Master Doherty puts it 'The blade is at least ten times more important than the handle.' So basically, we only did it a few times months ago but I still remember the basics.

Going back into the back room, I take a piece of wood and a jar of slime glue. I once had to harvest some slime glue, it was not nice. You first got to harvest a ton of slime's slime, then boil it and that's slime glue. Anyways, that is irrelevant to the situation at hand.

Sitting down at a table, I mark the dagger's end which will be handled and cut the wood down to size with a hand saw. Then I split the wood in two and chisel out an opening for the dagger.

Putting a generous coating of slime on both pieces of wood, I stick the dagger's butt in between. Making sure that they were somewhat together, I bring them near the furnace to dry out and stick together.

Checking the time, I had ten minutes left so once it was dry I quickly start cut the wood into a handle shape.

'This is taking too long, I need to go faster.'

Thinking on the spot, I boot up the sanding again and sand down the handle until it was a handle.

Zzzzzzzzz

After some finishing touches and more sharpening, I was done.

...

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Arius' Fun Fact: While I currently wield a sword as my weapon and have trained to use it, I always liked using a pickaxe better. I know a sword is just simply a better weapon but somehow I feel one with the pickaxe and not with a sword. It's weird.