Chapter 2262 Finish Early
2262 Finish Early
The young man went right into work after saying those words to Sam.
It seemed like he didn't expect any reply and just wanted to express himself. Sam took a look at him for a couple of minutes as he started drawing the designs for his weapons.
Sam looked at him for a moment and then at his designs. For some reasons, he didn't say anything to him. Just observed him for a short while and got back into his work. He took out one of the scrolls and started designing the weapons.
He needs to submit these designs along with the final pieces as well.
It is to ensure that whatever that the winners come up with is not just some random accident. The competition that already garnered a lot of excitement has attracted even interest. Only this time, Sam is the prime focus of it all.
As the student beside Sam said, it is not unheard of that some first graders breakthrough into the Grade 2 in the same year of their joining. But they are mostly special cases, like a guy who was already on the Peak of Grade 1 joining the academy after repeated failed attempts, or an unavoidable breakthrough that couldn't be ignored due to some special circumstances, etc.
Most people just tend to solidify their culitivation level and try to utilize the benefits of being a first grader as much as possible before breaking through. Because of that, it is not unusual to not have a single incident in a year.
But Sam just pushed it.
Not only did he do it, but he also started participating in the academy tournament. Technically, as a second grade student he can, but as the student said before, it is way too arrogant from the point of view of an average academy student.
Sam had his own reasons to breakthrough and enter the competition.
After so much effort, he managed to ignite the conflicts that are still burning passively behind the scenes. He cannot let all of that go to waste just because of some stupid rule passed on by the entity that is supervising the academy realm.
He needs to pour fuel on the fire and for that he needs to take more lives, crush more dreams and destroy more students.
He joined the competition solely for that reason.
But he realized that even without that, breaking through is a better move for him. Because as soon as he broke through, his wrist screen which didn't react for such a long time glowed again.
It showed the following message.
'Player Sam has met all the requirements to be eligible for the missions of the Academy realm.
Mission Name: Path to Glory 1
Description: Forge your own path to glory and increase your reputation across the academy realm and beyond.
List of Conditions for Mission Completion:
Participate in the Inter-Academy Tournament or Equivalent Get recognition as one of the best in the academy realm in at least two auxiliary professions. Become the Best in the Grade in your Internal Academy Tournament in Solo Combat. Reach Top 5 in the Grade in the Inter-academy tournament in Solo Combat. Win at least one first place in any of the Inter-academy competitions or equivalent. Be part of a Group that ranks at least fifth among all the academies in the Team Combat. Kill at least three people in the Inter-academy tournament. Challenge a person of higher grade and achieve complete victory. Contribute with increase in the ranking of your academy in the Inter-academy tournament or equivalent. Become a part of your academy's student council and win endorsement and clearance of at three elders to participate in any department of your academy's gods' army in the Battlefield of Gods.
(Note: You can clear this conditions over the years. However, keep in mind that you cannot activate Path of Glory 2 mission without clearing this and any contributions you may have made as the first grader to this will not be counter.
You can complete the conditions in multiple attempts over time.)
These are the ten conditions listed down.
There is no strict duration for the mission and it can be done on his leisure. However, he understood that the earlier he got into this, the more time he will have. After all, the Path of Glory is not the only mission.
It has a sequel and only the gods with the twisted minds who created this stupid game will know how many more are there. So, this decision of joining the game early is a great one for him.
As these thoughts ran through his mind, Sam finished his designs. He was almost completely in daze when he did that and when he raised his head to take a look, he could see many students have a bunch of torn up scrolls laying all over the floor around them.
He was not the first one to create a draft, many did and they even rejected their initial drafts and worked on the latter ones.
Even Sam's neighbor who commented on his participation earlier did the same.
Sam on the other hand didn't have any reason to do so. He is completely satisfied with the designs and started the forging process. The furnace is already heated up and ready for him. Of course, most people only use those things as a support to their own fire element.
Usually, smiths will use their own fire elemental energy to heat up the metal. They would have to do that, throughout the process, which consumes their physical, mental and spiritual energies. So, the furnace, will serve as the external source of fire and they can just use their mental energy to connect their spiritual energy with the fire and manipulate it to operate the heat.
The fire will have the same effect as their own element and they don't have exhaust themselves prematurely.
Sam liked the furnace mechanism. He dropped his metals in. He used his golden flames and the flames in the furnace completely changed color accordingly.
The metals heated up with the acceleration and he started hammering.
He didn't use any gimmicks, he didn't use any fancy techniques or tricks, he was just doing plain forging, however every move of his was precise, refined and calculated. Every strike was not wasted and was doing whatever he intended it to do.
*BANG* *BANG* *BANG*
The hammering finally drew attention of the other participants who looked at him with utter shock. They thought his participation and breakthrough were fast, now his forging is faster.
The audience are murmuring. At least most of the students are. But some keen eyed elders observed what Sam was doing.
Time passed, Sam heated the metal, beat it, made turned its shape into exactly what he wanted. He didn't even have to use his metal element to do that. Then he quenched his first weapon. A sword. He made a hilt while he placed the second metal in the furnace.
This time, he didn't hold back. He used a special wood and his wood control to make a proper hilt quickly and attached the blade. He just needs to sharpen it.
After that, he didn't even test the weapon and placed it on the side.
Then proceeded on to make the second weapon, the spear.
By then, most of the other participants were only in the middle of their first weapon. By the time they finished it and were in the final stage of finishes, Sam was also finishing the spear.
For this, he didn't make a separate shaft and such. He made the spear with a single large piece of metal. Beat it into shape, turned the body into shaft and created a proper spear tip, nothing fancy.
Then he moved to the axe and then the hammer and finally the daggers.
He followed the exact order the weapons were displayed in. He is at least a whole weapon a head compared to the rest of the contestants.
"What the hell? I thought he would show me something interesting, turns out he is not taking this competition seriously at all."
One of the elders standing beside Ling Tian murmured.
Ling Tian sighed and muttered.
"Not these cliched lines. Even I am getting bored of it. Anyone with half a brain can predict what will happen next."
He said as he glanced at Sam's weapons.
The weapons are well-made, but that is all one could say up on the first glance without any closer inspection. They are fine weapons, they fulfill all the requirements of being a standard weapon of their respective kind.
But that is all, even aesthetically, they are just plain boring, just like the methods Sam used to make them. They are just Basic.
Sam raised his hand indicating his submission.
The Elder in charge nodded and sent a student to collect his weapons.