Infinite Realm

"Finally. We are back." Sato sighed as he stared at the wall before him. The environment was quite dark as they had returned a bit late into the night. This directly corresponded with the the wee hours of the day in reality or the afternoon.

Sato and Xue Yan had rejected the idea of taking the official test at that point and exited Black Grill's cave more than 2 hours ago, arriving back at Riverdale town. 

There were 2 reasons for that happening with the first being the most obvious one; they weren't ready. Having gone through one battle-type test already and barely passing it, the duo knew better than anyone that they weren't ready for another test especially one so similar to the previous. This was especially so for Xue Yan, who barely had that much effect in the previous test. She only managed to pass it because of Sato handling most of the grey statue's concentration. If she were to face it one-on-one, Xue Yan knew that she wouldn't even stand a single chance against it. So the idea of taking the next test was ridiculous and it would be much better for them to get used to their new skills and improve their combat abilities first before taking the test. After all, there was no time limit on when they could.

The 2nd reason, though not as effective as the first reason, still managed to sway their opinions and considerations towards taking the test. This was simply because that day was the last day for the mission [Master Owen's trial]. Sato had never forgotten about the mission despite the seemingly busy schedule he had kept. While the rewards were stated to be unknown, for a B rating mission, there was no way the system would be stingy. Also, the penalties for failure were more than enough 'motivation' to get the mission done. As a  result, Sato had to return and take the test with the intention of obviously passing. The only problem was that Sato was yet to complete a new creation.

While things stood to be difficult for him during this time, Sato had actually prepared properly. Back when he went to town with Lu Zhen, he had visited the Blacksmith guild and borrowed a few books from them to read. Sato always tried to make use of every single free period within Black Grill's Cave to rehearse the subclass' theoretical knowledge since he couldn't forge anything in there. Of course, while the theoretical knowledge of forging is easier than the action itself, rehearsing the course wasn't all that easy as with each theory and idea Sato read, he learnt of a way to the issues surrounding it ranging from the effects , side-effects and success rate of forging via that method. Because he couldn't be able to practice out those methods, Sato didn't know which was suitable for him.

  At times, Sato even got confused about some terms and scenarios painted in the description of forging in some books since they required him to have tried out these methods and experienced these reactions to understand them. Luckily for him though, it seemed like fate got him covered.

'The Caventry were really amazing.' Sato sighed as he recalled the last minute affairs that helped him.

Back at the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains, Sato had asked Saimon whether the Caventry had any blacksmithing room or record. Since the civilization was so advanced that they had such amazing achievements like the central tower, which looked to be operating with a high class formation in control one of which Sato suspected to be related to space enlargement, and the statue of the Achievers, which seemed to combine sculpting, runes and formations, there was no way their knowledge would be lacking. With such amazing achievements in various sub-classes, Sato believed that they would have training rooms and records. Luckily for him, Sato's presumption turned out to be true.

"The library alone has knowledge that has books that have been gathered over millenniums and these books aren't limited to simple knowledge so yes, there are a few relating to Blacksmithing. There's even some for alchemy, rune-smithing, engineering, beast-taming, conning, theft, hunting and more. There's even random knowledge on beast and plants." Saimon said.

With no time to waste, Sato secluded himself in the library and went through the information there. If not for the lack of time, Sato would have tried reading everything but because he lacked time, he only focused on topics relating to blacksmithing. Xue Yan decided to join in, going through the books to help her decide a subclass to select.

The library Saimon spoke of wasn't underrated. It was huge and had some many different categories of book that if one were to spend 2 times worth of an average human's lifetime, they still wouldn't go through a third of all the books in there. Even the books in the blacksmithing section were a lot. Fortunately, players didn't need to really go through the entire book. Just grasping a bit of it would automatically record everything into their interface where they could easily retrieve the information at any point int time as if it were a part of their memory. 

Sadly, this fast-reading ability was still limited so it wasn't like Sato could begin reading everything. The limitations were mostly the fact players had to go through the book and understand a bit of it first, and also their mental capability had to withstand the repeated sudden influx of knowledge other wise, their brains might suddenly explode or tire out. 

It was just too bad that Saimon didn't let them take any book out from the building otherwise they could have gone through them over time or made a lot of gold just from selling the copies.

With so many books that held both experiences and records pertaining to blacksmithing, and a practice forge, which Saimon shared the location with Sato, the duo spent another 4 hours reading and practicing. All that remained now was to take the test before the day was over.

'There's still some time left.' Sato thought as he glanced at the ink black sky that had a green moon hanging.

Not wasting any more time, Sato headed for the blacksmith guild. 

Unlike in reality, most stores and shops in IR don't really close up for the day. This was because the labour distribution was mostly focused on adventurer jobs or jobs related to battling monsters. Such characters tend to work all day long and could return back to town at any point. So for other jobs and work places that are associated with them, for example taverns, pubs, hotels, the black market and so on, they mostly close late into the night; either at 10pm or 12am. Some even close later than that. The Blacksmith guild, being closely related to them too, usually closed by 10pm and Sato had returned a bit past 8pm.There was still time for him to complete the mission. As for hoping to be the first place or getting a  high rating, Sato didn't believe he would achieve such. 

"I'm heading to the Blacksmith guild. What about you?" Sato asked Xue Yan.

"I'm going to meet up with Lu Zhen and explain things to him before logging off." Xue Yan replied. Unlike the duo that were stuck in one location, the others had landed elsewhere and managed to exit the 10th floor They had been levelling up and going through their usual gaming activities, while waiting for the two. 

Sato nodded. "That's good."

The duo had both discussed revealing their experiences to the others after all, Saimon never stopped them from doing so. The only problem was re-tracking their steps back there but that wasn't much of an issue.

He then glanced at the gates as if he was staring into the distance before saying "Even though he might be lying, I feel that Saimon's statement about taking the test early seems true. So the earlier the better. Do you agree?" 

"I feel the same way too but I think we shouldn't rush it that much." Xue Yan responded.

"True." Sato agreed.

"How about 7 days from now? Remember, we still need to defeat that monster and it's not like the big guilds would ignore if just because they can't do it now." Sato said as he recalled the kobold king. 

Sato had estimated that as of now, no player should be capable of defeating it since no one expected it to be that strong. But the same couldn't be said for tomorrow or the following day or the next. As more people realise how strong the world class boss is, most of them would give up while the rest would be even more motivated. This was due to the law of equality; the stronger a monster, the greater the rewards. For big guilds, any extra reward is a valuable one as it would enable them broaden the gap between them and their competitors and increase their chances to be at the top.

Xue Yan thought about it a bit before she nodded.

"I was originally thinking a month or so but you're right. A week from now should be enough."

"Okay. Try improving your martial arts and fighting skills while you're at it. If you can't find a place to do so, contact me. Here's my contact." Sato sent Xue Yan his number and home address via in-game mail.

"Shinjuku?" Xue Yan showed a surprised look.

"Yeah, any problem?" Sato shifted his eyes over to her.

"No, nothing. It's just that I actually live there. And seeing your street name…I think we are neighbours." Xue Yan said with a strange tone. 

"..." Sato stared at her in surprise.

"...what?" Xue Yan said awkwardly as she couldn't stand Sato's eyes.

"*coughs* Nothing. I was just shocked at that revelation. I mean, I haven't seen you around before." Sato awkwardly replied.

"It's not your fault. I don't like going outside." Xue Yan said with a low voice. 

It seemed like there as a story behind that but Sato wasn't interested in hearing. Rather than saying he wasn't interested, it was more like he wouldn't bother forcing her to speak if she didn't want after all, they weren't close friends.

"Alright then."

After saying their goodbyes, the two walked their separate ways with Xue Yan heading towards the South District while Sato moved towards the Blacksmith guild.

'Time to get this settled.'