“Where is that rude elf?” Muttered Theodore to himself. Theodore Balkan had delayed the grand event long enough. It had been almost one hour past the starting opening ceremony. The opening ceremony was now coming to an end. There was no more time for delay. The dwarven prince gave a long speech about the greatness of dwarves boring half the audience to death for an entire hour. The crowd was at its limit and had been waiting anxiously for a while now. If Theodore decided to delay it any further, the audience might have started rioting. Theodore hated to disappoint the crowd. He liked showmanship and fair play. If the elf decided give up now then it was his loss.
*Ahem* *Ahem* Theodore addressed the audience at the end of the ceremony. “I now present to you....the final candidates! Thor! Cynbel! Pallidus! Ignot! …”
As their names were called out, each participant made their way to a forge. Players and NPC’s whispered to each other when three forges were left empty. Most likely a result of finalists who chickened out and didn’t turn up. Theodore, however, chose to ignore the whispers and move on. Beside the candidates forge were items they crafted from the previous round. Theodore started going around and introducing each dwarf and the items they crafted the last round.
“It is now time for the final challenge. You must make something Beautiful”
Beautiful how could they make something more beautiful than what was already up there. The audience wondered.
The blacksmiths looked at each other as the crowd murmured. The finalists had been preparing themselves for this moment for the last 4 weeks. Some of the finalists had decided that Theodore must mean make something beautiful to a dwarf, since dwarves were often tank characters then that would mean beautiful armor. The slowly began to pull out mithril, ebony and other high quality materials they mined in the Northern Mountain City. They glanced at one another trying to make sure theirs was the best, the most expensive of materials.The crowd was awed by these materials, as many were rare and much of the crowd was made up elite party leaders who were in desperate need of armor for their crew.
Other finalists like Cynbel, Thor, Pallidus and the others had dug a little deeper into Theodore’s words. They didn’t bother making armor or swords, instead jeweled sculptures and trinkets. Everyone was excited as they began to get to work, it was obvious what they had to do with just a little thought. Or so they all thought? The finalists, in their haste, forgot all about the strange missing elf who captured Theodore’s heart last round.
-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-
With a flash of white light, Weed appeared at his last saved location.
System message windows popped in front of him one after another. Weed did not recall he did anything in particular to warrant system message before he logged out.
“System message. Open”
- Cold blooded cruelty skill leveled up! Now beginner level 2!
- Cold blooded cruelty skill leveled up! Now beginner level 3!
- Cold blooded cruelty skill leveled up! Now beginner level 4!
- Betrayal skill leveled up! Now beginner level 6!
- Betrayal skill leveled up! Now beginner level 7!
- Deceit skill leveled up! Now beginner level 8!
- New stat unlocked, Ripple Effect! Betrayal, lies and cruelty combined give off a ripple effect with far greater consequences anticipated. Your spoken or unspoken words and actions may have a profound impact in society, political matters and people’s belief.
Master this skill to unravel its secrets!
Ripple Effect beginner level 1! - Leveling up Deceit also levels up betrayal! If deceit and betrayal level up simultaneously, cold blooded cruelty may also increase! Master this stat to unlock all its effects.
That’s weird. Weed slowly closed all the messages. Did I do anything so heinous before logging out. Is it an error? Weed wasn’t sure to be happy or sad. He was closer to his goal but it didn’t sit in well with his conscience. He did not get much chance to ponder. As a new set of messages popped up in front of him.
- Theodore’s Final Test starts in 6 Hours! All finalists are required to attend the opening ceremony! Please meet Thedore and learn more!
- Theodore’s Final Test starts in 3 Hours! All finalists are required to attend the opening ceremony! Please meet Thedore and learn more!
- Theodore’s Final Test starts in 1 Hour! All finalists are required to attend the opening ceremony! Please meet Thedore and learn more!
- The last Moon Apprentice test has begun!
- You are late for Thedore’s test! Please hurry or you may incur Thedore’s wrath!
- You are late for Thedore’s test! Please hurry or you may be disqualified!
- You are late for Thedore’s test! Please hurry, the final round has begun!
Weed was about to check the time of the messages when someone jostled past Weed.
“Sorry!” Said Weed while stepping away from the middle of the street. The player was gracious enough to curse him just once, “Bloody elf has to stand in the middle of the road!”
Weed quickly made his way to the castle, there was no time to be wasted! The last message was about an hour ago! He was late beyond redemption. As Weed neared entrance of the castle, he noticed the number of soldiers increased exponentially. Initially, there were just patrolling units that Weed came across. Then, he noticed the archers stationed on the rooftops and balconies of homes. As he went further, there were roadblocks all over. Everyone without exception was required to show their face.
Who are they expecting? As Weed removed his hood and revealed his face. The skyholm soldier dwarves unlike those from the Northern Mountain City, displayed no distaste for the elven race. They lifted their spears opening up a path before Weed. Once Weed crossed them, they blocked the path into the castle again.
Once inside, he noticed that the castle itself served as a garrison. So not only were soldiers encamped outside but inside as well! There were dwarven soldiers encamped all over the castle. At least a thousand NPC soldiers were protecting the castle, it was as if some VIP was attending the event. Archers were tensely monitoring each and every individual who moved around the castle. Any resident of the nearby village who got too close to the walls of the castle was driven away with a warning arrow. There was no room for kindness.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Weed would have taken more time to observe all the details but he was in much too great a hurry!
“Are you here for the blacksmithing competition or for an appointment with an official?” A dwarf concierge asked Weed as he walked into the inner building within the castle.
“For the competition.” Weed blurted out. He had no more time to waste!
“I require a ticket that you purchased for watching the competition.”
“I am a participant!”
The dwarf looked up at Weed suspiciously, “And you would be...”
“Weed!”
“Ah! I see the silver haired elf! I have been given a description of you before. Please follow me! You are terribly late for the competition! I believe the others have already started!”
The dwarf concierge led Weed up the marble stairs which led to two ostentatious wooden carved doors. The dwarf, pushed opened the door with great ease. As if oiled every day, the hinges made no creaking sound of the door opening.
Weed looked around and realized that the Great White Hall was indeed ‘Great’ and ‘White’. It expanded into every direction as far as his eye could see and it sparkled white in color. It was in fact so white that Weed had to cover his eyes with his hands to see better. From what he could tell, there was a large raised platform with 13 forges set up for viewing.
The event was grand for many reasons. Theodore had taken permission from the dwarven king, to hold it in the prestigious Grand White Halls, which had been closed to the public till now. Furthermore, it was open to all those who could afford the tickets. Three sides around the stage were raised seating and on the fourth was an empty throne. There were even arrangements made for audiences who couldn’t afford seating tickets, places to stand between the raised seating and stage. Nobles of the human and dwarven race from the Air Kingdom were attending the event. The nobility however could not be seen amongst the make shift arrangements. They proudly sat in their balcony seats which were located above the raised seating. Though, they were further from stage, those of nobility were only here to show of their wealth. The competition was of no interest to them.
Weed slowly made his way towards the stage. He had to push past some of the audience who began a picnic as the blacksmiths were slowly melting, hammering, molding various ores. The finalists quickly started pulling out one rare and valuable metals from their bags after another. They multitasked as they started to heat and beat them, after all who knew how much time they had left. The crowd was very impressed these were some rare materials and KMC Media was quickly identifying them for the audience back in RL.
“Excuse me!” Weed said as he pushed past a few human players. As Weed pushed around, he created a disturbance around him.
“Coming through!”
“No your not!” Replied a player, who thought of Weed as another audience member. He assumed Weed only wanted to get closer to the stage to get a better view of the event.
“I am a finalist.” Weed earnestly replied.
“Yeah right. An elven finalist.” grunted the human player to his comrades. However, before the rest of them could join in on making fun of Weed, Theodore’s eyes fell on Weed. He was glaring at Weed in anger. ‘Now he arrives. I will give him an earful. He better makes something good or else I will just fail him as quick’ Theodore thought to himself.
*Gulp* Weed was wondering whether now would be a good time to turn around when all the attention was shifted to a loud bark. “WOOF!?”
The crowd and other blacksmiths staggered a bit due to the loud bark. As they looked around for the source, Weed shouted out to Theodore, “‘I am sorry! I am late!”
“WOOF!” another mighty roar ripped through the hall. “Squirrel I saved you a place!”
Theodore motioned for Weed to step forward. The audience could not believe that an elf was a finalist as well. Just as the other competitors who thought the elf finally chickened out, shot him with sour looks for being allowed to join in despite being late. Only Pallidus smiled seeing Weed back. He did wonder where did Weed disappear of to, however seeing Weed at the finals relieved him of this anxiety.
“Hey!” Weed called out to the dog which appeared from behind his forge. The finalists in the way of Snappy, moved away quickly, not wishing to be in the path of the large ‘legendary beast’. “Thank you, Snappy. Did you reserve a spot for me? Good boy! Here a treat for you.” Weed said as he handed the dog some left over meaty treat.
“Squirrel – you have learnt well! You finally understand what your master expects of you. Woof! Woof!”
The elf continued greeting Snappy while trying to avoid Theodore who was still glaring him. Needless to say, everyone who watched was dumbfounded. Weed put down some treats for the giant dog who woofed happily before jumping onto the stage. Weed had finally made it to the grand stage.
“No extra time for you, elf! I should have you disqualified for being late!” Theodore shouted as he grabbed the elf and dragged him to the center of the stage.
Weed was late and yet not too late. Theodore who oversaw the competition put him in his spot very quickly, after a long string of dwarven curses for being tardy. Weed was sure some of the stuff he said was not meant for his age to hear as a good portion of the later curses were left untranslated in probably dwarfish language. Even the crowd was cringing on several untranslated part. In the end, Weed was even later. Weed considered replying but he thought he better shut it. The dwarf looked like he was going to explode. Weed didn’t want to receive a flying kick or a hammer to the face.
“Everyone, I humbly apologize for this candidate’s tardiness. His punishment is his lack of time. I would like to introduce to you all, the 13th candidate, Weed.”
A ripple of murmurs and whispers broke out amongst the players in the audience. ‘Did he just say Weed?
Even Shin Ye Sui, of KMC Media stood shocked and speechless. Did he just say Weed? A blacksmith? She wansn’t the only one so shocked. The audience in the studio in RL, was in an uproar as well.
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Authors Note:
1. Will be edited soon.
2. Thank you so much V4LKYR13 and Tewlve for co-authoring this.
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Connect to Royal Road – Elementarem Vim next Chapter?YesNo
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