Chapter 57: Just this?

Greyson was nervous about his professions. A lot of the noble children started with a profession extremely early so their foundation would be very sturdy and they could improve faster as they get older. Comparatively, he knew his start was much later, however, his teachers had reassured that his progress was steady yet quick. Some basic questions could stump him as he did not learn just theory long enough, but in actual practical representation of skill he would not lose out to any of the kids. Looking around to all the tests, Greyson could finally let out the breath he was holding. Worried that the test would be a written exam on the foundation knowledge and theory of the occupation, he could not help but worry that he was not prepared enough. However, it seems the school just assumed everyone had that kind of knowledge and went straight to testing their actual skill level.

As he looked at the blacksmith test, any blacksmith who could refine an average tier two equipment with no special combination of symbols.

"Hm? Is this it? That's the baseline ability?" Greyson felt confused as he assumed that any young genius would be able to reach that level only to see a majority failing as they could only create peak tier one tools or inferior tier two tools. He was not aware that Thraec had not wanted to inflate Greyson's ego so he had purposely downplayed any accomplishments. Therefore, until now, Greyson did not have a proper gauge of where he stood in comparison to other kids his age. Looking at the disappointment and the shoddy work of the other children, he finally started to get a inkling that Old Man Thraec had not been completely honest with him. At the same time, though, this lie only made Greyson feel pleasantly surprised than upset. He was not vain. Praise was not what he needed nor what he craved. Arrogance and pride beget complacency.

Seeing the lousy ability of the other, Greyson's confidence level shot up as he quickly got in line to test. Getting in line rather quickly, he managed to squeeze into the middle groups. Watching turn after turn and failure after failure, Greyson felt a pain in his heart looking to all the wasted materials and even wasted scraps that instead of melted down were just thrown away into a large waste bin. He was tempted to speak out saying he would take everything but it was too late and those waste metals were all taken away. Painfully waiting for his chance, Greyson barely paid attention to the children who were going before him.

"Hm?" Just as he was feeling that this was a waste of time, he watched as another girl skillfully started engraving into a normal sword. The sword she had made was nothing to look at, however, Greyson could tell that she was really talented with engraving. The symbols were all low level tier three and her concentration and steadiness gave Greyson the impression she was not overextending herself. Nodding to himself, he praised her ability. She was superimposing a lightness wind symbol and a flexible water symbol. Although the beginning weapon was inferior, the engraving would ensure that it would be an impressive flexible sword that was good for any person who focused more on the speed and softness of the sword. Tier three was when symbols started to split off into many smaller subdivisions instead of just the elements. After reading the book the old man had given him, Greyson felt the world was opened more to him. A symbol for endurance from the earth element, combustion symbol from the fire element, from simple to complicated, tier three was only the beginning.

At this point, Greyson was not the only one who noticed that the unassuming girl was a truly talented blacksmith. Judges and students alike were looking at her work with a brightness to their eyes. A bright light burst out that signified the successful completion of her engravings. Legs giving out from underneath her, the girl plopped onto the ground while wiping her sweat in exhaustion. Taking a closer look at her, Greyson assumed she was similar in age to him. Her presence was negligible and her looks were average with chestnut brown locks and green eyes and cute freckles around her nose. One look and everyone could see her shy and slightly weak demeanor. No wonder no one had noticed her at first.

"Passed! What is your name, young one?" The head judge of the blacksmiths spoke out with a kind demeanor. It was the first time he had done something other than scowl at the awful show of talent. Smiling warmly, he approached the girl as if the clouds had finally cleared. However, his sunny demeanor did not assist him in communicating with the girl. Trembling, she was in shock from the moment he spoke out and started approaching her. Only after a long silence did she finally whisper an answer.

"Ly, Lydia, sir." Slightly stuttering, her small voice escaped her mouth. The kind smile on the head judge's face slightly cracked as he looked at how terrified the girl was. Was he that scary looking? Able to look right through the judge's expression, Greyson lightly chuckled at his expense. Poor man, this girl was probably just painfully introverted.

"Well, Lydia, this is your badge for the blacksmith association within the Aurora Academy. You can take the other examinations or just wait to that side where the rest of the kids who passed are standing." Giving her an awkward smile, he held out his hand that revealed a gold badge with three dashes on it signifying her tier while pointing to the open area where there were already around 10 kids waiting around. All the failed children looked at that badge with envy while Lydia did not make much of a move at all. Seconds ticked by and the outstretched hand was slowly lowering with each one. After what seemed like at least a couple minutes of silence did Lydia suddenly snatch the badge and scurry off to the other group of waiting children without a word.

Face twitching, the head judge was in between wanting to get angry and cry. Even though he could tell she didn't mean it, this was a pretty loud slap in the face for her to treat him this way. The other judges just snickered in amusement at his predicament. Giving a wry smile, Greyson shook his head while holding his laughter in. What an amusing girl, this Lydia.

After this episode passed, the atmosphere went back to normal. A couple of other kids passed but no one stood out or had stepped into the tier three level. By the time it was midday, Greyson stepped up for his turn at last. Everyone was given average materials to make a mold of whatever tool they desired. The real test was the engraving at the end. During the long wait, Greyson had decided to make a magic whip. A normal weapon would not be a challenge for himself and his level was at a point where he was not worried about failing the exam.

"You may begin!" The head judge called out. Once his voice had resounded, all of the kids got to work right away. Choosing the flexible Silk Silver that was aptly named due to its flexible and malleable nature. It was a perfect metal to create a whip. For the handle, he chose regular Rock Iron. It was a basic metal, but it was the perfect for a thinner and smaller handle as it was dense and hard in contrast to the whip. Watching his selection, the judges finally sat up a little. Of all the participants, 95% of them chose to create a basic sword and then placed all their focus in trying to engrave the symbols to the best of their ability since that was the most important part of the exam. They couldn't help but feel that this young half-elf boy was rather gutsy to try something like a whip.

An hour passed by quickly and Greyson already finished the whip. Although the metals used were nothing special, the whip still came out nicely. However, it had come to the most important part: engraving. For such a flexible weapon, Greyson decided to use a branch of the earth element which was metal. It was a sharpness symbol that would make the whip like a knife and cut through its target. He also included a freeze symbol from the water element and a slice symbol from the wind element. When all these symbols combined it would make this whip a middle level tier three magic tool. When the whip touched anything it could freeze it and cut it apart like a knife and the slice would allow the user to project wind slices by waving the whip. Even Greyson was excited for how this weapon would turn out since this was the first time that he was engraving onto a weapon. Earlier, he would only practice carving symbols into the air so he would be familiar with the motions. He took a long breath before opening his eyes and beginning. The judges and other kids in the surroundings had all become distracted by Greyson and stopped paying attention to the other contestants.

"Such talent! That tool will definitely be at least a middle level tier three weapon and that is mostly because the metal used were too inferior." An older judge remarked.

"Yes, for such a young boy, this level is extremely impressive."

"Hahaha, looks like our blacksmith association will be gaining the most talents this time around." The head judge was grinning from ear to ear thinking of how he would brag later. After his comment, all the judges smiled and nodded along. In the academy, resources were scarce. Not because the kingdom was poor, but because there were just too many school and students. Only the geniuses gained focus and, in the academy, only associations which showed promise would gain the most resources. Lately the blacksmith association was waning compared to past years. The physician association had a genius light and fire magician who could create pills and heal. They received the most support as of late. While the painting association did not have talents per se, most of the female noble children chose painting as their second occupation which would cause their parents to fund the association. Under the table, the painting association was probably the richest from all the shady dealing they did with the families of their students.

Greyson and Lydia were both blacksmiths with high potential. He could only imagine the future boost the both of them would give the academy.

While all the judges were stuck in their happy imaginations, Greyson had almost finished his engravings. Although he had practiced the motions, actually performing was much harder. A cold sweat ran down his back as he kept pushing through. Even panicking a little, Greyson was worried about his mana. Tier three engraving required much more mana and mental energy than tier two. Before this time, he had not thought about this difference so he didn't save mana as he should have. Just the last couple of lines for the last wind symbol was left but his mana was spilling out. Keeping his hand as steady as he could, the last line was finally drawn while the whip lit up. Floating in the air, the symbols soon spread out across the whip while the body turned silver and the engravings turned black. When the whip lightly landed back onto the table, it was a beautiful and sleek sliver whip with black carvings spread out across the body. Truly a great piece of work. In contrast to all the audience looking on with awe, Greyson had collapsed onto the ground slightly gasping for breath.

Too close. He was way too close to failing earlier. What would have happened if he had failed? Suddenly he realized that he had been to arrogant earlier. This test was extremely important, it would not have changed anything if he had chosen an easier weapon and only one or two symbols instead of three. In his desire to be first in this exam and gain the attention of the association, he took too many risks. Thankfully, everything worked out and the originality of his choices had definitely caught the attention of the judges. Looking at the excitement in their expressions, Greyson silently let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off his brow.

He would have to be more prudent and careful during the other exams, especially because his skill was not as high in the other two as they were based less on talent in magic.

"This piece is wonderful! Boy, I wonder if you would be willing to allow the association to auction this weapon out? We only take 3% of the earnings, however it would still boost our and your reputations. What do you think?" The head judge was the first to approach and suddenly spoke of a deal. Taken aback by his suggestion, Greyson was silent in thought before he remembered to respond. The head judge on the other hand was almost crying on the inside. Why were all the geniuses this year so strange? Was this one not going to talk either?

"Sir Judge, I would really appreciate if the association would sell this whip on my behalf. I would not know what to do with it afterwards, anyways." Greyson spoke up quickly after thinking it through. Realizing Greyson had just been thinking, the head judge was relieved and quickly responded in turn.

"Of course, of course. Child, you can call me Grandpa Allan. I'm not a real stickler for etiquette. What is your name?"

"Greyson, Sir, er... Grandpa Allan." Greyson was not completely comfortable calling the man by this, however, for lack of a better way to address him, he decided to go along with it for now.

While they were having this conversation, however, the rest of the audience was in shock. Grandpa Allan?! This was the Grandmaster Blacksmith of the association! A tier five blacksmith! Don't look at the two level separating them as small. Each tier took longer and longer to advance from the higher one got. He might seem like a kind older man now, however, everyone knew that he was in fact a shrewd tiger. His skills were extremely coveted so he would always milk all the families of their savings before finally doing them a favor and creating a magic tool for them. Everyone decided that they must become good friends with this Greyson since the Grandmaster looked so kindly upon him.

"Greyson, is it? Great! Well here is your badge, and you can go stand over there with Lydia." Handing him an identical badge to Lydia's from earlier, Allan pointed over to where Lydia was sitting. Taking the badge carefully, Greyson actually shook his head.

"Actually, I am going to take the test for other occupations as well." He explained.

"Other occupations? You actually know other ones?"

"Yes, I am also a musician and a painter."

"Hmm... the other exams are just as challenging to pass as this one. It might be better to only take this one to keep your record clean. All the results from the second stage are turned in, so if you don't do well on those exams it will show up when the examiners are looking through yours." Allan was worried because he saw Greyson's ability as a blacksmith which led him to believe he did not focus enough on his other occupations. If those other two were not up to par him taking the exams would only have a negative impact.

"Thank you for the advice. I am aware of this, however, I have enough confidence to at least try." Greyson really was thankful that the head judge had cared enough to say something, however, he was adamant in at least looking at the difficulty. He had not yet reached a point where he thought he should just give the other two occupations up.

"Well, alright... If you have made up your mind. Make sure to come over to the association after the tournament is over!" The head judge looked worried still but he no longer held Greyson back. Sometimes setbacks are also good for geniuses. The younger they were, the more they had to learn so they would not become arrogant.