บท 8: Artifact Forging
Wallace opened the lid of the Artifact Forging Box and placed the bracelet inside carefully. After closing the lid, he placed the first magic structure crystal on top of this lid which created a reaction as blue light emerged from the crystal.
He was holding on the box though he hadn't channeled any mana yet. He carefully sensed the mana gathering formation before channeling his mana to control its flow, he felt the mana stabilization array activating while he carefully connected to the magic structure crystal.
Wallace immediately felt the difference between using the professionally made formation and array compared to his own. The feeling of smooth and stable channeling worked wonders in this process.
Unfortunately, these things were only temporary as Wallace felt that after 3 or 4 more usages of the mana array and it would be worn out. As for the mana formation, it lasted longer as it could normally help magician up to 15 times before you would notice a decline.
After Wallace connected his mind on the crystal, a gush of information appeared in his mind as the crystal melted, he now had about 15 minutes to inlay the content of the crystal before the structure's content would dissipate. Four orbs of blue light were now hovering about on top of the machine.
He absorbed the information and started to work, it was actually weird that he could easily understand how to inlay the magic structure to the bracelet. The four blue lights represented the innovation of 4 generations in artifact forging, so the information it contained was massive. They had infused these four lights before in the first semester.
Yes, four students worked on infusing the contents of these four orbs of blue lights before, but now he would be working on it alone and after this, he would still have to inlay the last crystal containing the Blue Flame Mantra.
Minutes had passed but Wallace wasn't having trouble. He was extremely focused and his mind was clear in all his actions. Once he started inlaying the last magic crystal, although he was having difficulties due to complex patterns in the magic structure, it was only consuming his time to properly infuse it. Even though the memory crystal he consumed had different elemental paths, he was still able to use it as a foundation to complete the forge. Especially the 3rd memory crystal he consumed, he noticed it would be perfect for this task.
***
Outside the forging room.
Students who were done with their turn formed a group and shared their experiences.
"Ericka, how was it?"
They noticed that Ericka, one of their classmate who was performing averagely in the class seemed a bit down ever since she left the forging room.
"I failed, I was able to infuse the 1st crystal and was doing really good on the 2nd one, but at the last part where the magic structure of that Blue Flame Mantra has to completely fuse on the bracelet, it seems that it rejected the way I infused the 1st crystal. Even though I prevented the artifact to be completely wasted, it only turned as a 4th gen artifact."
"Hah! Are you bragging? I didn't even infuse the 2nd orb of that 1st crystal."
That was sad. Everyone looked at Gilbert with pity as he announced his failure.
"I could have completed it if I used my own mana array just to let you know. I'm just not compatible with that too smooth array. I like it rough!" Gilbert added to defend himself after he noticed the look on their faces.
"Ehem, how about you Kazimir?"
"Mhm, I completed it. But I took too much time."
Kazimir was a man of few words, he came from a foreign country and was too careful about his conduct. But it didn't hinder their classmates to befriend this aloof guy. They were even able to drag him here in their group.
Everyone present was also impressed when they heard that he completed the task.
Apart from the seven classmates they had that were top performers since their 1st year, you could say that Kazimir could be the top 8. He was only lacking compared to the seven due to the other's wealth and prominent background who could almost give them unlimited resources to practice forging art. Apparently, the top 7 had a group of their own and were a bit difficult to approach compared to this foreign guy who couldn't say no.
They chatted for a while but this time everyone looked at the forging room's door when they heard it open. They saw Wallace walking out of the room and immediately asked how he fared.
"I got lucky, that was really tough." Wallace answered as he unconsciously touched the thin necklace he was wearing.
"You really did it? That's awesome!"
"How come I failed if you were able to do it?" Ericka was exasperated as she heard Wallace completed the forge, she expected to be a bit better than him based on the previous occasions.
The result of the exam would be announced the next day but as they had nothing important to do, they waited for everyone to complete the examination and compared their results. Everyone now had a rough idea of those students who had passed the exam.
Many were surprised at Wallace as he was one of the 11 students who were able to complete the forge. It didn't matter what grade of 5th gen artifact he created, as a 5th gen artifact was still the 5th gen whatever grade it was.
Everyone was still chatting with each other when Instructor Garen came out of the Forging Room.
"Oh, you are all still here? Go home and rest, I'll study each of these and give the result tomorrow."
"Yes, Sir!"
Everyone dispersed and left to have their rest.
***
At the faculty room of the Academy.
Instructor Garen was checking carefully each of the bracelets his students made. Although only 11 of them had completed the forging process, he had to grade the others as well for ranking purposes. Giving a rank to a student would normally encourage them to study harder.
It was now Wallace's artifact turn to be checked. He was checking the capability of the artifact and felt weird, he double-checked his evaluation as he could not find a flaw.
"That's weird."
There should have been a flaw, after all, the Blue Flame Mantra could only exert its full potential if the material used on the forge came from a star burr. But obviously, he never provided that item and did not notice a star burr included with the material.
After 10 minutes of careful scrutiny, the instructor exclaimed.
"Perfect! Such an ingenious way of fixing the flaw, it seems this class has a lot of surprises."
He actually only expected no more than 5 students to complete this task, 11 students completing it was already a huge surprise for him.
Now, Wallace seemed to have accomplished something more than what the instructor expected as well.
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