After Elizabeth finally managed to find where the Forging Event would take place, she began walking towards the competitor’s area. As she approached the room, the elder managing the area barred her path and said, “Young lady, the spectator area is that way...” He pointed to the area where she had come from.
Squinting her eyes in confusion, Elizabeth said, “Yeah, I know. I’m competing...” As she spoke she thought, ‘Why he assume I wouldn’t be competing?’
“You are competing? In the FORGING EVENT?” Placing overt emphasis on the words “Forging Event,” the elder spoke to Elizabeth as if she were mentally ill. From his perspective, it looked like a spectator had taken a wrong turn, what with all the various treats Elizabeth carried as well as her general oblivious expression while walking in his direction.
“Yes?” Though her words seemed insecure, in actuality it was her mind that was unsure of how to proceed. ‘Should I take out my forging tools so that this idiot will fuck off? Or should I state my name so that he can look me up in the roster?’
Fortunately, she didn’t have to do either, as the elder thought, ‘She looks more like a medic than a smith. But… with the changes that have taken place these past couple weeks, it wouldn’t be too hard to believe that a little girl like her could become a true smith...’ He wasn’t exactly discrediting Elizabeth on the basis that she was a girl. Rather, her frail image would cause anyone to question the validity of her words. After all, even though it was rare, there was occasionally the female smith. But usually, they would be built like bodybuilders, not supermodels…
The elder said, “Alrighty then, behind me is the waiting room. There, you can prepare yourself and as the arena is being set up. However, to keep the competition fair, all participants must use the forging stations and materials provided by us.” The elder lightly sighed as he moved out of the way. Still questioning whether or not she could be a worthwhile smith, the elder cynically thought, ‘If anything, it might be entertaining to watch her act foolishly on the main stage.’
Ignoring the obvious condescending attitude the elder before her had, Elizabeth gave a courtesy, “thanks,” before passing him and entering the waiting room. However, as she entered the prepared waiting room, she immediately stuck out like a sore thumb. Inside the hot room filled with partially clad men, Elizabeth appearing with a plate of funnel cake in one hand and her cup of sweet tea in another provided a fierce contrast.
Yet being surrounded by all these guys barely bothered her as she had grown used to the environment after becoming a member of a Muay Thai dojo. The guys in this room might be a bit more jacked than her fellow peers at the dojo, but in essence, the experience was about the same.
Elizabeth picked a benched that had yet to be occupied and ignored the various looks the men in the room gave her. She savored her precious funnel cake and waited for the start of the event to arrive. But with looks as great as hers and the tense competitive environment, it didn’t take long for someone to crack and try to make conversation with her.
Ironically, in the room filled with countless men built with shredded physiques, it was one of the least intimidating guys that came up to her. Before Elizabeth, a boy of relatively average height, around 1.8 meters tall, tried to start a conversation. He said, “Hello, my name’s Dave. What’s yours?”
“Elizabeth...” In between bites, Elizabeth entered her taciturn mode.
“Elizabeth? Are you new to this kind of competition? I think I’d recall if a girl as beautiful as you took part in the previous tournaments~” There was absolutely no hesitance in his voice, even as he stared Elizabeth right in the eyes.
‘Mhmm...’ Conflicted at heart, Elizabeth took a second to analyze the situation before inviting this obvious flirt from continuing. Looking into Dave’s blue eyes and taking note of his blond hair, Elizabeth guessed he was from some Eastern European country and eventually caved into the potential information she might receive from him.
She said, “Nope, this is my first time here…” Taking a sip of her sweet tea, she expectantly waited to see who Dave respond to her closed off pattern of speech.
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“Well then, my dear Elizabeth, in this tournament, there are several stages. I’m guessing this is your first time taking part in any event, so don’t be surprised to see this format pop up in future events.”
Elizabeth nodded and continued snacking on her cake and tea whilst listening to Dave until she finished. She listened to him all the way until an announcement from the public announcement system called for all participants of the Forging event to make their way to the performance arena. The two gave each other a farewell in earnest, yet each thinking completely different things as they made their way to the arena.
Whereas Elizabeth thought, ‘Wow I barely even said anything and that guy offered up all that information for no reason! I guess… he’s not such a bad guy after all...’
Dave thought, ‘Holy shit! I can’t believe I pulled off phase one with a girl as beautiful as her! Superbabes like her usually make it so hard to approach them, especially after taking a look at my appearance.' Whilst he kept up a friendly expression on his face, internally he was smirking at a level comparable to Elizabeth's cursing, as he thought, 'Hahaha… She must be one of those sheltered sluts that have never experienced the real world! After sowing the seeds, it’ll just be a matter of time before she pressed in between my crotch.’
Making her way out of the closed-off waiting room and confronting the harsh summer sunlight, Elizabeth’s senses were momentarily staggered. The sunlight in her eyes and the noise of tens of thousands of spectators cheering or talking amongst themselves made for a jarring sensation. However, almost as soon as the confusion settled into her body, it just as quickly vanished.
In the time that she’d been waiting for the announcement to enter the arena stage, the various attendants that had collected the tournament participants' forms had organized and compiled directions for the stage assistance to set up the perfect arrangement for each of the events. Their work was evident to Elizabeth as she scanned the arena and found a forging station with her name on it. Though, because the stations were set up in alphabetical order, with her last name being “Ultimatia,” she was pretty far from the center of the arena.
Taking her seat on a stool provided by the competition at near the southern wall of the tournament arena, Elizabeth waited just like all the competitors for everyone to settle into their place. As she waited, she played around with the tools in her station to get a feel for them before the competition began.
As she sighed from the realization that all the tools provided by the Martial Society were superior to her own equipment, she added one more thing to do in the never-ending list of tasks she had to eventually accomplish. Up until now, she had been using the same Beginner Forging Kit granted to her from one of the first smithing quests. Along with practically all her other tools, she could easily create better sets of equipment with her master rank Forging Skill.
Elizabeth couldn’t spend too much time acclimating to the tools provided to her from the Martial Society, as martial practitioners were evidently very punctual. Soon into her time idling away, she heard an announcer formally introduce the start of the competition. “Ladies and gentlemen! Welcome to the very first International Wushi Tournament of the Shuguang Era. As all of you know, this would have been the 84th Tournament of the Yaozheng Era. But with the world suddenly changing, it is to be expected for the Martial Society to declare the start of a new era.”
The announcer momentarily stopped speaking, yet in the wake of his silence, there was a clamoring hubbub brewing from the spectator area all the way to the competition stage where Elizabeth currently was. Within moments, Elizabeth understood why everyone was so excited. Eavesdropping on the people around her, she heard various people release bits and pieces of information which slowly drew a picture.
“A new era! This will be the perfect time to make a name for myself...”
“Heh… There’ll probably amazing rewards at the end of the tournament, given how important the start of a new era is...”
“To think that an era would end after just a short eighty-four years!”
Slowly, the crowd of hyped martial artists calmed down and the announcer continued speaking. He said, “Now then, as tradition, we will start the Forging Event with the refinement stage.” The moment he stopped speaking, several stage assistance walked into the arena and began giving the competitor equally sized pieces of raw ore.
As the competitors were being handed their source material, the announcer continued saying, “After the Celestial Phenomenon took place a little more than two weeks ago, not only did the air gain spirituality, but everything from the sky to the earth was transformed. To those unaware in the spectator’s area, within those changes, the birth of spiritual ore was one of many. The competitors in this competition may have a hard time compared to those of the past, as most of the spiritual ores have yet to be fully understood. But to keep things relatively fair all the competitors in today’s event will begin with a relatively inert strand of iron.”
Suddenly, the large 450-meter long by 32-meter tall television screen to the north side of the arena lit up to display a sample of the iron strand the competitors would have to work with. Before the event began, however, the announcer said, “Going by the usual rules, the top 500 competitors will move to the next stage and anyone who can’t produce a properly refined metal of at least 50% refinement rate will be disqualified. Now then… Begin!”