Infinite Realm

"Fuuu."

Sato let out a breath of air as he stared at the scythe that stood before him.

'I hope it's not a failure.'

Out of the two tries the contestants were given to forge the scythe, Sato had created a failure in the first one. 

In Blacksmithing, failures were divided into two. The first was when the product doesn't rhyme to the shape and structure of the original schematics. This was like when a blacksmith is asked to forge a spear and he forges a sword instead. Both shape, look, design and features don't match up to the required piece.

In the second type of failure, both the shape, look and design of the product matches the criteria. However, certain features, most especially the ability and power scale of the weapon, is below the bar. Such a failure was typically categorised as a weapon or equipment not making the cut-off make to be ranked using the blacksmith standards but could still be used.

During the first try, Sato had made a failure under the first category, and while he had succeeded in making a scythe now, he didn't know whether it was successfully a Halocles' Scythe or a failure under the second category.

"Time's up. Step away from the workspace."

Just as Sato was about to inspect the scythe and discern which it was, Kolin's voice sounded and Sato was unable to perform any further action on the scythe lest he gets disqualified for disobeying the rules.

"Leave the stage while your creations are checked and processed by the jury for your scores."

As Sato left the stage, Kolin couldn't help but glance at him. He(Kolin) was shocked that an unknown individual was in possession of a mystery flame. 

It should be known that mystery flames were quite rare, starting from the 2-star rank and above. Finding them not only depended on luck but one had to be knowledgeable of the flames and their behaviours as well as have made preparations for capturing them.

Despite this, an unknown apprentice, who was suspected to have no teacher, was in possession of a mystery flame of at least 2-star rank and closing in on the matured stage.

'I need to investigate this kid's background.' Kolin thought before disappearing from the stage.

Meanwhile...

'Impossible. This is impossible!'

Handel yelled internally but tried to maintain an emotionless look on the outside. However, this was proving to be a difficult task for him as anyone who laid attention to his behaviour would notice Handel biting his lips as he tried to calm his emotions.

There were two reasons for Handel's current state of mind. The first was she fact that even with the 2-star ranked Lazuli flame, Handel wasn't confident that he had succeeded in replicating the original model of Halocles' Scythe. Just like Sato, he was not able to check the result of his product before the time was up. One the outside, it looks alright but chances were that the features and ability of the scythe was below average and so, might be a failure of the second category.

This was understandable as having a mystery flame didn't guarantee that one would be successful; it was just a mere prerequisite for apprentice blacksmiths. Even still Handel would disappointed at himself if it turned out to be a failure.

As for the second reason why Handel's emotions were a mess, it obviously had to do with his number one opponent in this tournament as well as his current rival, Sato aka the Cloudsmith.

With Sato's reveal of the black flame and his completion of the structure of Halocles' Scythe, it was pretty much confirmed by all that he was the Cloudsmith. While his physical appearance was still shielded away from the eyes of all by the black cloak he had on, seeing him was enough for most of the players in the crowd.

After realising that the Cloudsmith also had a mystery flame of his own, Handel began loosing contorl of his emotions. He has thought that he has the third round in the bag, thanks to the 2-star Lazuli flame his grandfather had gifted him when he was young, but he never expected Sato to have his and this made Handel stunned and unable to comprehend anything else. Luckily, he wasn't in an important step in his forging process or else, that small lapse in concentration would have destroyed his work. 

Nonetheless, Handel's emotions had already entered a state of turmoil as he began worrying about whether he would be able to surpass Sato in this tournament.

Handel, however, wasn't the only one suffering from a mix of emotions. The other contestants were too with a majority of them sighing with disappointment due to their inability and poor performance in the tournament. Others were hoping that the scores remained the same, in fear of being overtaken by their runner-ups.

Apart from Sato and Handel, only two other person's had managed to create something close to the assembled form of the scythe. One was the NPC in 4th place, Zeke, while the other was the third placed Green Thorns, which was very surprising. Green Thorns didn't have a mystery flame nor a Master as a close relation, yet, this mysteriously character was able to rival those who did. Although the final creation of Green Thorns was most likely a failure of the second category, to still be able to achieve the basic form of Halocles' Scythe -although with only a 62% accuracy- their skill was well displayed simply by pulling that off.

However, the spotlight only shone on Green Thorns for a while, before focusing on the two major characters of the tournament. The eyes of both the contestants and the audience shifted between Sato and Handel, as everyone began sharing their thoughts on who would come out as the victor of this tournament.

While it was true that Sato was still first place, the difference between him and Handel was a mere 10 points. 

The written round had a total of 280 points (160 for the objectives and 120 for the subjective questions). The first round of the practicals has a points cap of 420 points (3 Upper-tier Mortal ranks at 140 points each). The second round had a point cap of 600 (3 Upper-tier Mortal ranks at 200 points each). 

Following the pattern, the third round would most likely give above 200 at the very least. That means that so long as Handel performed better than Sato, with his workpiece being higher in quality, it was not impossible for him to overtake Sato and take first place.

About an hour later...

"What's taking them so long to process the scores?" One NPC in the audience complained.

During the previous rounds, it had taken between 20 minutes to half an hour for the points to be shared and scores displayed. However, a whole hour had gone by and Kolin's silhouette was nowhere to be seen.

This led to many players having various suspicions about the situation. Some of them even began having conspiracy theories that the appraising council was trying to spot some errors in the Cloudsmith's work so as to prevent him from taking first place.

While this was nothing more than some random conspiracy theory or some b*llsh*t, there was a bit of logical fallacy to it. This was mainly due to the fact that Kolin seemed to have sided with Handel right after the contestants began complaining about the appearance of a mystery flame. There were also some players that added to this, stating that Kolin's face had a slight change with a bit of gloom appearing in it right after he saw the Cloudsmith's mystery flame.

*Whoosh*

"He's finally appeared..."

Everyone calmed down as the old man, Kolin, appeared once more on the stage, and presumably, for the last time.

"Due to the fact that this is the last round of the tournament, only the positions below the top 10 will be displayed on the scoreboard."

Right after Kolin had concluded, the scroll in mid-air indeed changed as the scores for those below 10th place began to change as some names rose above the others, though not many.

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