Chapter 1096: Those That Play Unfairly
Upon finally moving to the capital, he had faced intense competition from many other sellers, realizing how lucky he was to be one of the few blacksmiths of his village back then, which made him feel so important.
He truly realized he was nothing but a frog in a well, yet at the same time, it excited him, and only made Clark work even harder, every day, for the last three years.
His sales weren\'t the best, but newbie adventurers and players often bought his products due to being cheap and mildly good, slowly he was improving his skills, each new item he made became better than the previous one.
Steadily, just as his mother told him, he would progress and become a Master Blacksmith!
He had been excited, seeing all these amazing experts and masters around, he knew he stood no chance of winning, but he still was qualified, and had to do his absolute best, no matter what.
This was a tremendous opportunity, to show off his skills and talent, and see if any of these old masters could take him as their apprentice!
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
"Almost done…! I\'ll make the strongest fire sword!"
Distracted by the sound of his hammer and the aura of mana he imbued into the blade; he didn\'t notice something small lurking beneath his anvil.
"Phew, almost done! Let\'s- Huh?"
And when he realized that there was a small rat-shaped creature made of fire…
"What\'s that…?"
It was too late.
BOOOM!
The little rat exploded, his anvil was sent flying and so his sword, shattering into pieces while his face started burning.
"Uuaaaggh!"
He screamed in agony and confusion, completely unable to understand what happened to him!
The audience was shocked to see the scene.
But that didn\'t end there!
BOOM!
BOOM!
BOOM!
Three more contestants had their anvils blown up and their bodies set aflame!
And they were all the youngest blacksmiths participants.
Unable to fight back due to the rules, they had to be quickly taken care by staff, who carried them away one after another.
Naturally, because they became unable to participate anymore, they were all disqualified!
"How awful, who is doing that?!"
"Hahah! Their faces burned!"
"Holy shit, who sent those rats?"
"Hey, is this getting more serious now?"
As the people reacted, the referee quickly stepped forward.
"It looks like participants Clark, Kent, Seth, and Camilo have been disqualified due to having taken unexpected damage! It seems they will be unable to participate for the rest of the competition! Four contestants have already been disqualified, but there\'s eight more! I wonder what will happen next?!"
Planta glared at the events with her eyes filled with anger.
"How are they being allowed to do that?"
She looked at the culprits, everyone here already knew who did that.
It was the trio of Forgery Brothers, who were laughing their asses off while giving the finishing touches to their three swords.
"Hahaha!"
"I can\'t believe they fell so easily for that!"
"Newbies like them shouldn\'t have even entered this contest to begin with!"
Planta was growing more irritated.
"Can\'t I just go smack their heads with this hammer for a second?"
"You\'ll be disqualified! Stop it!" Ambil said. "And because our entire group counts as a single participant, if you go, we all go too."
"Hah…" Planta sighed, feeling frustrated.
"They\'re attacking them indirectly, you can\'t even see what they did," said Mark. "But they\'re most likely using Magic, perhaps Fire and something mixed with that… Could they be mixing Fire Magic with Spirit Magic?"
"There\'s no way those bastards are blessed by any spirits though," said Ambil. "I believe I know what they\'re using though. It\'s called Shape Forge, its usually used for smithing, but when mixed with magic… You can do stuff like this."
FLUOSH!
Suddenly, Ambil conjured his own magic, his flames taking the form of a small bat, materializing and seemingly looking alive!
"Woah, I had no idea this could be done without spirits!" Planta gasped.
Since she started playing that she always thought spirits could do all these things.
But through the combination of many magic types, skills, and other abilities, that wasn\'t the case.
The world was vast, and there were endless types of magic, elements, skills, and abilities.
It was only natural that people would create imitations of spirits with their own abilities one day.
"Shape Forge… Can I do this too?" Planta wondered.
"Maybe, you\'ll have to try," Ambil said. "But why even bother? Do you want to make them pay for what they did to the poor newbies?"
"Yeah, I feel it\'s unfair to disqualify them like that before they even showed off their true abilities!" Planta sighed. "Picking on those that are still learning… It\'s really nasty."
"I agree," nodded Mark. "They have no dignity at all, cheap bastards."
"Well, I wouldn\'t bother with them. Let them do whatever they want, we are here for crafting, right? So get back to your work! Once the opportunity arises though… Don\'t hesitate," he said.
Planta and Titan understood what he meant, and also knew how prideful Ambil was.
He wouldn\'t want to win or disqualify someone through cheap tricks after all!
"Okay, then, let\'s continue."
Planta finished sharpening her blade, it was looking lustrous, and as sharp as she could possibly make this material, already enchanted with her many energies.
"I\'ve made the sockets specifically for a stone, only one is enough. I\'ll crush another into dust, and then imbue some runes into it…" she nodded.
She was thankful she had learned the Runic Inscription Arts Skill, making it very easy to imbue equipment with magical properties, as long as she used a catalyzer to write the runes, such as the dust of spirit stones.
And as she was attentively working on her things…
"There they are…"
She noticed them, not one or two.
But ten little fiery rats, sneaking around towards her.
They were camouflaged with an illusion spell too, making them hard to see.
"Get fucked!"
The brothers laughed, as the fiery rats exploded.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!