The 3 Opportunities

Ciemnosc walked forwards after having walked up the stairs, he was in a stadium closer to the western gates, but the stadium was completely filled up with people. There were even a few accommodations that were made in order to let even more and more people in and watch the whole thing in person. Unlike tournaments, there wasn't a need for barriers here in this one due to the event being rather peaceful and flashy only.

“Uuh, I’m so nervous.” As he walked towards his own spot in the middle of the whole stadium's enlarged arena on the floor he was in, Ciemnosc heard a timid boy’s voice in an old teenager’s body speak out. Turning his head to look at the older teenager, the latter noticed Ciemnosc and looked back, surprised, before beginning with his introductions himself.

“Hi, I am-” But Ciemnosc shook his head a lil’ and raised his shoulders a bit. A gesture that confused the old teenager as to what to do next, followed by Ciemnosc’s words which were at the very least more human-like. “Don’t be so nervous. You look so old and yet act like a little girl. What is it with you?”

The older teenager’s right eyebrow arched upwards as he looked at Ciemnosc’s face to his right, wondering why someone of his same age would say something like that, like that. But after walking a few more steps and realizing that their spots were somewhat together, the old teenager then said, “It’s my invention, is a kind of pill that is both poisonous and the antidote for the same poison. I’m just…”

“I’m just not sure if that would be enough to either be recognized by any of the most powerful forces in the entire world!” Added the now excited old teenager whose footsteps became rapid once he lost himself in the thoughts of grandeur, therefore commenting while walking alongside Ciemnosc, “One of the major organizations, it would be an incredible thing to somehow become part of one of them, even working like a slave for th-”

“Oh, you’d like to become a slave for them to use?” Ciemnosc interrupted, asking with a voice that carried neutrality but also just a little bit of mocking, the old teenager obviously sensed both of them in Ciemnosc’s voice, and in the next moment he could, with his face reddening and his hands becoming fists; he responded with a bit of a shouting bark. “Of course, I would. There’s nothing wrong with that! I would become a slave to work for them!”

‘...The world is still the world, I guess.’ Ciemnosc had, naturally, become speechless with those ‘brave’ words. But after having his own, real thoughts given some life, he turned towards the older teenager and, while patting the latter’s upper back with his left arm. Spoke naturally. “Well, good luck in becoming a slave in case your project doesn’t work. What is it by the way?”

Feeling weirded out, at the very least and at last, about Ciemnosc’s words, the older teenager looked around with his eyes a little bit before opening his mouth to talk. However, he closed it right after and said instead with his eyes squinting in a defensive demeanor. “No! I’m not gonna tell you! It’s what I worked for since my childhood, I can’t let anyone steal that from me!”

“...aight, good luck then.” Suddenly lowering his eyelids to a full and exaggeratingly opening them back up, Ciemnosc could only say that before deviating from the older teenager’s path and taking a whole different one in the next second, which somehow made the older teenager feel weird as he still had a few tens of seconds more of a walk before arriving at his spot.

Step, step, step, step…

Slowly, on the other hand, Ciemnosc walked up to a certain spot that was still free but the rest surrounding that specific one were all taken by other contestants. Just then, a cute girl with orange-brown hair was asking if the person who was taking that spot was coming or not. A handsome, suave young man was already nodding and about to say no when…

“That’s mine, so unless you’d be okay with sitting on my lap, leave.” Ciemnosc’s voice rang out and stopped the young man’s night from becoming active, leaving him feeling quite frustrated, indeed. But the girl, on the other hand, put on an ‘aiish~’ expression on her face before trying to win Ciemnosc out.

“Could you leave it to me? Mine is so far away~Ç. How about it?” She even stepped forth and stopped in front of Ciemnosc, looking up at him by making good work of her low stature to this other ‘young man’, looking really cute. Yet, Ciemnosc then said after just tilting his head to the left, “Mmmm, no. Go away.”

With that, Ciemnosc ignored the cute one and began to walk around his little spot. Just as the girl was about to promise him a date or a kiss, she and the young man suddenly saw him take out an inscribing pen before beginning to form little arrays here and there. They were pretty common and of an ‘okay’ level, which they could tell after many masters teaching others in some classes and the like.

“Oh, sorry for offending you, senior apprentice-brother. I wish you good luck.” The smart girl then bowed and immediately left, not giving the still-wanting young man even a single glance furthermore, she left with her dignity left intact while Ciemnosc just ignored her and continued on placing some silly arrays here and there.

“Those arrays aren’t anything. I’ve seen some use them just to give others an idea of what an array is, amateur.” The young man nearby said, his hand against the floor of the arena and suddenly looking away, as if in the case that Ciemnosc turned around and saw his face of jealousy a bit too obviously.

‘...’ Shaking his head with pain mentally, slowly. Ciemnosc continued for a couple of minutes more to not only inscribe those array formations but to also place them around his own things. There was a cauldron that was up to the height of his knees, a forge that would be used for 2 of his 3 opportunities, and a few materials thrown around, as per the rules of the carnival.

Suddenly, from all around the arena and a few seconds after Ciemnosc ended placing his things around and was now calmly sitting in the middle of his spot, a voice could be heard all across the arena, which basically initiated whatever small cheers there could be around. “Now everyone, wait for another minute so that our extensive array formation can detect the veracity of the items you’ll be working with today.”

“Woooohoo, it’s finally starting!” - “About time! I’m so hungry, I haven’t eaten a buffalo Creature in a long time and here I thought they would sell something here!” - “Foodie…” - “Woooho! That’s my boy, good luck kiddo!” - “Waaah, that’s my 14th boyfriend, wow! My 2nd boyfriend, doesn’t he look cute? Hehe.”

There were all kinds of free and easily audible voices and words all around Ciemnosc, which he could…in any way, which he could hear for better or for worse. Meanwhile, all around under the floor of the arena, a bit of blue light came off from below. Whereas the items placed all around were being naturally scanned by the huge array which couldn’t have any more flaws in Ciemnosc’s eyes - but that wasn’t important to him.

Ciemnosc saw his items being quickly scanned while those from other spots had their items scanned for a second or longer. There were also some whose items didn’t stop being scanned for over close to half a minute. But the moment 20 seconds had passed like that, those people would become rather anxious and start sweating…

“Spot number 220, get out of here! Where do you think a Dragoon Root would be allowed to work here? Disgrace of the Craftspeople, leave!!” - “Spot number 4,920, leave at once. There is no place for you here!” - “Spot number…”

One by one, or rather, many by many, people began to be called out in front of a bit more than 15,000 people. While there were only about 7,500 spots for those in the arena and for this batch of Craftspeople, there could still be more that came from behind the bleachers once the first batch of people of the day in this stadium was to all either walked out of the stadium or were selected by some people.

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Finally, after the minute went by, about 2,000 cultivators were asked to leave the arena. And so they did, their backs hunched as they made their way back into the hallways and sadly leave the sect’s territory or return to their rooms with tragedy. It wasn’t surprising, even now, to see thousands to tens of thousands leaving a stadium without the round even beginning despite the Self-Mutilating Honores Sect having such a rich story of destroying cheaters’ hopes.

After the entire batch of cheaters were gone from the arenas, the voice from around Ciemnosc’s arena began to be heard once again by everyone, this time eliciting some more real noise as cheers erupted more according to the situation.

“Now, for the next 30 minutes, all contestants are to try and show their very first creation to the world! Make sure to give it your best, for you never know if there are some pair of eyes, or eye, that has been eyeing you since the very moment that you begin… Contestants, start creating… NOW~!!”

The young man beside Ciemnosc seemed to be emboldened and encouraged by not just the announcer’s voice and words. But also the crowd finally cheered for him to start showing himself to the world of the strongest cultivators! He was already trembling with crazy hopes as he began taking his herbs and, not even giving them another glance, began separating them by muscle and feeling memory before throwing them into the cauldron.

Ciemnosc, on the other hand, ignored everything else and began his own work. However, because it wasn’t allowed to inscribe an array formation to isolate noise from either side, he had to hear the crowd cheering, which…somehow felt more real. As if they weren’t waiting for people to accidentally kill each other or for some psycho to come out and kill nonetheless without there being even a need to; just wishing the people on the arenas to do their fucking very best.

Still, it was not like he had been softened or become moved because of this. He was merely curious about such an obvious difference between this grand event, and previous ones. He also ignored the young man. After giving the herbs he was using a little glare and some with his Spirit Sense, though it was prohibited to look at others with their Spirit Sense…who the fuck could stop him in this world if he wanted to use it?

Anyways, giving ‘something’ to those poorly treated herbs, Ciemnosc decided to not begin with his best product thought to face the light today. And so he began to instead start the forge he brought out to become heated, half an Inferior grade Powerful Stone placed directly inside of it. Seemingly being a very old version of forges for cultivators.

Such a thing directly attracted everyone’s attention, as even though the ‘new’ ones of today were those who had either some compartment or that used an item that would heat directly at its unprotected butt, which in return would have a mechanism an array to make sure that the heat will propagate towards the most necessary parts and not just the butt like a frying pan or something.

Seeing only one of the contestants in Ciemnosc’s arena use such an old version where one would just send the Inferior Powerful Stone straight into the belly of the forge, it did attract attention but not by that much, as those interested in why this was happening as Ciemnosc seemed to be from the sect and not a poor stray cultivator like in other scenarios in other arenas - would just look away after a couple of minutes.

There was not much that Ciemnosc did while he waited for the materials he put there to either melt or heat well enough that would burst his clothes to flames, at least by a small section of them that was directly touched. And while he put those items there, he even just sat there in front of the forge as if the heat was nonexistent for him.

Well, though Ciemnosc could feel the warmth from it, he as always was never really harmed or felt danger coming from such pure elements existing and coming to be from seemingly nature or things that causes nature to become.

After he placed a couple of bronze bars in and they melted, Ciemnosc picked them up with a recipient each, big enough to hold a liter of liquid, successfully filling both inverse cone-shaped recipients. Then, he had placed a silver bar as well, doing the same as he took out a very large oval-shaped recipient this time and fully filled it with melted silver.

After having those 3 recipients with melted ore in them, Ciemnosc placed them atop the forge as if to heat them. Many thought that the recipients themselves would just break, but as time passed and Ciemnosc began to rather slowly yet actually very neatly and quickly position a few things like an anvil here. And a large recipient holding some kind of freshwater there - those 3 recipients with melted ore were completely fine.

After having prepared everything around and having also melted some other things and heated them to a ‘hellish’ degree enough to indeed combustion his clothes, Ciemnosc took the smaller recipients with some other melted materials, even some precious crystals, and moved them towards a single bowl recipient.

Mixing, throwing off some ore’s dust which he ‘created’ by just crushing a few stones with purple, yellow, and blackish-stone little fragments around said stones, and keeping on blending them all up to the ores from smaller recipients that were melted. Ciemnosc then kept on mixing, but slowly this time while throwing some of the overly heated materials to the bowl recipient.

When they became in contact with the melted liquid mixed with several ores and whatnot, the heated materials would slowly shrink and shrink, while the liquid would not only gain volume and change to the heated ore’s color but would also start flaming about as if in reaction to enjoying eating up a whole, heated ore to its divine enjoyment. As for what ‘it’ was, naturally, it was the mix of melted liquid from smaller recipients and ‘dust’ that he created before.

Just as he does with herbs and plants, and just as he seems to have some sort of…natural affinity to have a good start with animals, Ciemnosc was of course going to try ‘talking’ and ‘conversing’ with the materials used for forging equipment, weapons and tools. Of course, he wasn’t treating them as other living, intelligent beings such as humans or other Races around the Region. But it was to a similar level, only by using…his thoughts— ? —.

In any case, it wasn’t just the sight of Ciemnosc doing such strange things that didn’t really make any sense, even from a cultivator’s point of view. After all, wouldn’t the end result of such mixing end up becoming either an extremely stiff and unusable material or wouldn’t the most potent and resistant material of all prevail? Becoming just a slightly better type of that material than the habitual ones, if not worse?

Yet, Ciemnosc then began to move the heated materials himself, using his left hand to move the ores, and such around the bowl recipient, his entire left forearm becoming engulfed by the surely hot as heck melted liquid and possibly even poisoned. But to Ciemnosc, and he easily showed it, he was just normal as if not even feeling he was under some kind of ‘water’.

The flames that attached to his skin and seemed to be all lovey dovey with around his arms, hands, fingers, and even elbows seemed to be an attraction in the eyes of the crowd. Who would still look around the arena to see those more ‘standard’ and usual skills when forging or concocting, as some even tried inscribing some array formations.

After a little while like that, and with his whole materials used up for this one creation, this opportunity. Ciemnosc finally let the mix of melted ores and materials on top of a little table before grabbing the 3 recipients; 2 for melted bronze bars in inverse cone-shaped recipients and 1 for melted silver bars in an overly large oval-shaped recipient.

In a swift set of motions that were actually just slow, it was just that Ciemnosc moved for several different purposes at the same time. His right arm held some tools like needles with their edge having a little ball, some looking like spatulas, and others merely needles or a type of spear with a very ‘fat’ body that only became thinner as it went over to the tip. As well as the bowl recipient holding that mix of melted stuff.

His left arm held the 3 other recipients and was also positioning those recipients all around as if in some kind of order that the crowds couldn’t tell how it worked but that it worked nonetheless. And so, when it came to finally start finishing things up, the forge was still fully heated and ready to melt stuff, but Ciemnosc had closed it already.

On the other hand, he grabbed some very smallish molds to pour the melted materials and ores on, as well as a couple of them that were just small and not that ‘smallish’. First, he poured the melted bronze into one of those small molds while using a tiny bit of what was left from those recipients in the other small mold.

With that, the second mold received a kind of layer at the bottom of itself before it was then poured with the melted silver by Ciemnosc. But there was yet some more remaining from the melted bronze recipients. After pouring the silver on that one small mold, with already a layer of bronze at the bottom, Ciemnosc added whatever was left of melted bronze on top of the mold and on top of the melted silver.

In some strange way, as if having gone through an impossible accordance and agreement, the silver remained ‘strong’ while the bronze on top of it didn’t fall a single nanometer nor did it mix with the silver. Instead, it maintained its ‘stance’ on top of it and slowly created a layer of such across the mold before slowly shrinking and revealing only the mold’s shape.

Ciemnosc had, somehow, managed to make a bottom layer of bronze and an upper layer of bronze, all while an equally melted silver had filled up most of that mold’s shape. But that was just the beginning, as there was still the other melted liquid in that bowl recipient that had to be used, and only the smallish molds were left for that matter.

All in all, however, the sight of the bronze liquid and silver liquid seemingly synchronized…was an entirely novel thing in the world for the first time!

And to Ciemnosc’s unaware self, a lot of extremely, most powerful eyes were already looking at him and gazing at his incredible, new, and intricate ‘means’ for and of creation with shining - hateful. glinting eyes.

…