Chương 149: Limitless Path Chapter One Hundred Seventy-Four

The next two weeks passed like that, with Beth working on her smithing, seeing it improve to Apprentice[7] under the guidance of several new Master-level craftspeople. Now that her skills were really kicking up, she had started to seriously consider what she would build as her piece for the competition. She felt a simple sword would be a little too cliché, and she also wanted to use the competition as a chance to push herself.

Using even a competition to try new things might sound a little crazy, but she was determined to not wind up as a mediocre smith, or with putting her profession work on the backburner while she grew stronger from fighting. Blood, too, improved greatly over this period of time, picking up the very first level of Leatherworking after only a couple hours on her first day. She had worked quite hard over the two weeks they had been practicing their skills, getting her Leatherworking up to Apprentice[2].

She really seemed to quite enjoy the crafting skill, spending hours upon hours cutting, sewing, punching, and dying. Beth would have been a little worried for her, for both of them, really, but it was the whole point of the stage, so she simply was happy that Blood had found something she enjoyed so much. Beth finally decided she wanted to do something a little more difficult that was still within the capabilities of a high-end apprentice as well as being a fairly common forging item.

She was going to make a full mana copper shield with a padded grip and a mana steel supporting backplate. She had a plan for forging the shield entirely of mana copper and forging a support to weld to the back out of mana steel, but she wasn't exactly sure of the specifics. Fortunately, she had a whole bevy of journeymen, experts, and even masters available to ask for advice.

"Master Thomas," she said, hailing one of the several forging masters that was a bear of a half-dwarven man. Standing the height of a regular human but with the width and barrel-chested size of a dwarf, Beth bet he would have weighed four hundred pounds even not counting all the changes mana, his skills, and even elixirs and pills had made on his body. He had a bald head that was offset by an enormous, black beard that even in nine braids practically fully covered his torso, stretching nearly down to his knees.

"Yes, lass?" he asked, walking over to her work area.

"So, I had a couple questions," Beth said.

"I was thinking of making a shield for my overall project since it's reasonably complex to make one entirely of metal, but I've never made a shield before. I was thinking of pushing myself and trying something new, but I don't know where to start and was wondering if you had any pointers? I was also thinking of making a back plate or supports from mana steel to try and make the shield even better, but I don't know if that's a good idea or not…"

"Sure, lass, let's work on some things," he said.

"The simplest way to go about this would be to use a sheet of the metal you want, cut the material roughly to the shape, then smooth that material out. You could do the same for a second plate or reinforcing material and then use rivets to attach the two together. If you want something a little deeper, you could make the sheet yourself and use multiple materials to create that classic wavy pattern in the metal."

"I like the idea of doing the wavy pattern. I really want to take chances to push myself with what I'm doing and how I'm doing it," Beth replied.

"Alright, lass, let's do some practice," Thomas replied. He spent the next hour with her, working primarily on hammering together multiple pieces of mana copper and folding them to get the pattern they were going for. This task in traditional blacksmithing would have been immensely difficult, as making even a moderate-sized sheet of metal with nothing but muscle was very difficult and time consuming.

Given that Beth had stats and access to more modern tools like presses and power hammers, it was a lot less labor intensive than just using her pure muscle without stats or using a hammer powered by a watermill to create the plate. Her first effort, under the guidance of the master, was rather poor, though she was able to form the main plate rather decently. She continued working through it a couple times before Thomas moved on, hammering at mana copper to make the plate and practicing shaping it.

She didn't move any further beyond that that day, and it was fortunate there were masters present who were able to salvage her mistakes. Otherwise, the blended copper might have been difficult to remake or reuse unless it was sent to a full smeltery. Beth returned to the suite at the CRA Hall to find it empty, Blood working hard at her new profession day and night. Beth continued with her practice, working more on her technique and trying to broaden her knowledge base.

The straps or handles used to hold the shield were something entirely new for her, and figuring out how to both forge and attach them was a challenge in itself. She got more assistance from the masters over the next week, and began working on her idea for a mana steel backplate. She found the mana steel tougher to work with, but after two days spent doing nothing but trying to forge it, she had a bit of a breakthrough in terms of technique that pushed her to Apprentice[8].

She spent the last week preparing for the competition by honing her technique before starting on her final shield. She gave herself two full days before the day they were required to turn in their finished pieces, working methodically and precisely on her design. The final shield was a large, triangular shape with the sides straightening out before the top, giving half a foot of straight area. The top itself was a bit of a W shape, with the bottom being the opposite in coming down to a severe point.

The straps were forged of mana steel and riveted on, with padding on the interior that was available as part of the materials provided by the Trade Hall. Working with such a material was another new experience, and she had had to make several attempts at it during the week leading up to her final product to get something that she was ultimately satisfied with at the end of the day.

The last day was rather frenetic for most, as a lot of the artisans were still trying to put the finishing touches on their works, though the masters had ceased patrolling the stations. There would be no last-minute assist from a much better crafter for anyone here, and Beth was happy to submit her piece early in the morning.

She was surprised when Blood submitted her own work just twenty minutes later; a pair of finely crafted leather gauntlets in the same style as the lupine woman wore, minus the metal armored pieces. Blood had used some kind of process to harden the leather more than normal, which did limit flexibility through the wrist somewhat, but was a rather significant increase to the overall level of armor they provided. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"Happy?" Beth asked as the two of them sat at a café outside the Trade Hall.

"Not really," Blood replied before taking a sip of her drink.

"But I did the best I could in the circumstances. I'm definitely not going to win a prize, but I don't think I'll be last, either."

"You advance in skill at all?"

"Oh yeah," Blood answered with a grin.

"I got up to Apprentice[4] as I was working on the piece, which was a nice bonus. I can't wait to continue after we're out of here."

"You'll have plenty of time," Beth said with a nod before taking a sip of her own drink, something very similar to the tea she was used to from Earth.

"And you don't have to do what I do. Now that you're fully a person-I mean, you were before, but everyone'll see you like that now-you can do whatever you want. You don't have to slum around with me."

"I go where you go, sister. Unless you don't want me there," Blood responded firmly.

"Just saying that you have options," Beth said with a shrug.

"No pressure either way." The two finished their drinks before exploring the city a little, seeing what else was around in such a modern place. They found the rest of the business district a little boring, though there were a couple of interesting shops. Blood insisted on looking at some clothes for half an hour, though they didn't buy anything as they couldn't take anything out of the stage with them.

They wandered away from the stores and continued to meander about, inadvertently stumbling into the red-light district. To Beth's surprise, much of the district was running full steam even though it was right after lunch, but she supposed people didn't really need to hide any of it considering it was all fully legal. They left the district and wandered a little further afield, able to take to the walls for a short while and check what was in the fields beyond.

It was largely uninteresting, with the areas around the city cleared of anything dangerous and kept under tight control, with some poorer neighborhoods and a number of fields growing random crops spread about. Beth figured they had had enough and led them back to the Trade Hall, where they waited another hour until the turn-in deadline had passed. The masters and workers of the Hall had already started judging the pieces even before the deadline, and that didn't let up after submissions were done.

It took them another three hours of work to go through the rest of the pieces, and they were ready to announce the results in the late evening.

"We're starting with the smiths," Thomas announced in a no-nonsense manner, not making any flowery speeches.

"As you all know, top ten get at least some small prize, with the top five getting bigger prizes. We'll only announce the top five here for the sake of time, so I'll start with that for our apprentice smithing competitors. If you want to know your rank and your name isn't called here, check the lists we post after this section.

"In fifth place, we have Dorn Ironhammer, who made a quite finely forged spear. We expect his work to continue to improve in the coming years, as he shows great promise.

"In fourth place, we have the newcomer Elizabeth Bell, who pushed herself beyond her limits in making a hefty shield. Her piece was both practical and beautiful, with the folding work of a very high quality." The top three places followed, but Beth was more than happy with fourth. Even now, she was not at the top of apprentice ranks, and to get one of the "big" prizes with her level of skill and experience was quite a treat. The top three were all at Apprentice[9], and they had all made quite brilliant pieces.

Beth suspected the first place winner needed only an iota to make it to Journeyman and was quite rightfully first. Blood didn't have her name called in the Leatherworker section, but she wasn't particularly upset by that, considering her mediocre skills. There was only so much a month of practice and work could do, and she was truly chuffed when they checked the boards at the end of the whole thing and saw her name, listed as Blood Bell, in tenth place.

Once they had seen her position it was enough to complete the scenario, as the stage suddenly ended with them experiencing the whiteout of their senses very briefly before reappearing in the array room. The extra bonus was that the thirty silver Beth had spent on the room was refunded to her, as apparently that wasn't counted as truly having been used. They did their usual routine of resting and relaxing after a stage, getting a very brief sleep in as they weren't exactly that tired after the crafting stage.

They woke and got cleaned up and ready for the day before hitting the best of the restaurants off the lobby to get their fill of grub, after which they headed into the array room. Beth thought about spectating some of the other matches, or even trying to socialize a little with some of the other participants, but she was just too eager to get through the stages, especially as the rewards continued to be so good.

She couldn't wait to see what kind of completion rewards they would get at the end, especially if they made it close to stage thirty. Once they had processed at the desk, choosing the private option, they moved to a Warder and were directed to a light orange portal. They had a series of orange portals to go before a series of red portals for the final stretch. At a signal from the Warder, they entered the portal, experiencing that brief period of overwhelmed senses.

They regained their senses a second later to find they were within a massive room, carved from black and red stone with a dozen enormous pillars holding up the ceiling. Beth noticed a woman standing next to them as she finished surveying the area.

"Welcome," the woman said, holding up a hand to forestall anything they might say.

"This is a limited projection meant to explain the rules of this stage. It has limited interactive capabilities and can only provide some basic information at the end of this explanation.

"This stage is simple, yet difficult. You will be forced to face multiple boss-level opponents at one time. You will interact with me to begin each challenge, and after each fight I will provide you a scoring based on a complex matrix of variables. You have a limited overall time to complete all fights, and ten fights is the minimum to complete the stage. Do you have any questions?"

"Yes," Beth said with a nod.

"If ten is the minimum, what is the maximum?"

"Twenty," the projection replied in a monotone.

"How many opponents in a wave?" Beth then asked.

"Five," the woman replied, still in a monotone.

"What's the total time limit?" Blood asked as she adjusted her backpack.

"You must complete all fights within two natural days," the projection replied without inflection.

"Are we good?" Beth asked Blood.

"I do not know," the projection replied.

"Not you!" both girls said in unison.

"I'm ready," Blood said after giving the projection a narrow-eyed glare.

"We're ready," Beth said to the projection.

"First wave starting," the projection said emotionlessly.