Chapter 151
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Once they walked through the door, the scene around them changed once again. Not much was different, there were still stone doors with questions written. Face turning dark, Greyson feared that there would be more riddles. Just the three before were enough for him, couldn't it be a more physical test?
"Hehe~, welcome to the second stage. So, you survived..." The voice sighed.
Could you not sound so disappointed... Really speechless, Greyson could anticipate hearing this voice in his nightmares. What kind of crazy person built this dungeon?
"Well, since you were clever enough to get through the riddles, this proves you're at least not dumb. Probably. So now~... I will test your luck! If you are lucky, this second round will be a breeze. If you're not, well... I guess you're dead? Teehee."
A shiver made its way down Greyson's spine hearing the last giggle. Actually, ever since signing the contract with Lucius, Greyson's instincts towards things pertaining to fate and luck grew more sensitive. Although fairly vague and intangible, he was feeling pretty confident towards this level, so he felt that his luck and Leilena's luck would be enough to pass. Just what kind of luck is needed?
Curiously approaching the door, the pair read the words on the door. It was actually a task: Complete the alchemy formula. Underneath a bunch of magic herbs plus their amounts were written with three blank spots spread out within the list. On the ground in front of the door, a brush and ink were available to write the answer. Glancing toward Leilena with anticipation, Greyson truly hoped his feelings were right. Obviously, he was completely clueless towards anything to do with alchemy. Therefore, their only hope was Leilena. And fulfilling his hope, Leilena grinned widely before happily laughing.
"No wonder that voice mentioned luck. Hahaha, I guess you and I are pretty lucky!"
"You're an alchemist?" His face lighting up, Greyson quickly asked to confirm.
"Honestly, I'm barely a one-star alchemist. It was my side occupation." Slightly embarrassed, Leilena felt that the label of alchemist was too heavy.
"But you know the answer?"
"I think that's what the creator meant by luck. This is the most basic mana supplement potion that everyone learns. It's one of the first ones everyone who wants to be an alchemist memorizes. So, as long as you have an alchemist, it's super easy to pass. But, if you don't, this easy problem suddenly becomes much more difficult and possible impossible to solve."
Hearing this, understanding dawned on Greyson. It was true. Say, for example, he came here alone. At this step, he would have been stuck here possibly until he died. He did not know the first thing about alchemy even in passing. Blood running cold, Greyson started to realize that he had really underestimated dungeons. Based on the creator, these tests could be really random and nonsensical. Next time, he would have to prepare better. Maybe even start reading up on some of the other occupations. Not to become an expert but to at least not be ignorant. Actually, Leilena also realized that she had been too confident coming into the dungeon. Star rankings usually mean there is at least one strength-related test to pass, but they are not a comprehensive rating of what is necessary to get through the dungeon. Maybe later on there will be one test that one needs to be a magister level magician to pass, but all these other tests might not be possible for certain magisters to pass. Holding her chest, she felt relieved that she could solve at least this first one.
Picking up the brush, she wrote the amounts and names of the remaining necessary herbs for this potion. The ink lit up on the stone door and a click could be heard before the doors started to open. A little bit apprehensive, the pair looked at each other before finally stepping through to the next task.
Walking up to the door, after reading the words, it was Greyson's turn to smile. It seems his feelings were correct. Their luck continued. The task read: Play the song below. Underneath, two pages of sheet music with a basic tune was written. As long as you could read sheet music and had an instrument, you could pass this test.
"Looking at your expression, it seems it's your turn to solve this. If I remember correctly, you played the flute?"
"Yes! If I couldn't play this piece, Teacher Carlyle would have my head." Flipping his palm, Mesmer appeared in his hand. Caressing it fondly, he felt that it had been quite a while since he last played. Double-checking each note, Greyson really did not want to get electrocuted once more if that was still the punishment. Once he felt the song had been branded into his memory, he brought the flute up to his mouth. Soon, a beautiful sound broke out into the room. Flute notes echoed throughout as Leilena closed her eyes to listen in silence. The song was very simple and short, so only around a minute passed before Greyson was finished. Though, his interpretation could be slightly different from the original, the notes were all correct. A little worried that the creator would be too strict, he tightened his body and grit his teeth in preparation for a punishment. After all, he did not actually recognize the song, so he did not know the right tempo and phrasing. However, this time, it did not come. He heard a familiar click and opened his eyes to see the doors slowly creaking open. Brightly smiling, Greyson let out a sigh of relief.
"Hahaha, Grey Grey, there's no reason to be so scared." Watching his whole reaction through, Leilena giggled while poking fun.
"Hmph! When you suffer the same punishment, you can come judge me." Blushing a little, Greyson did feel like he might have overreacted slightly. Quickly getting up, he put Mesmer away and walked towards the next stage. Leilena continued chuckling behind him, but he decided to just ignore her.
Unsurprisingly, the next door contained a new challenge. Greyson's expression first lit up before his brows furrowed in seriousness. It was not that he was unable to complete it, but the level of difficulty suddenly went up from before. The door read: Use the materials and engraving symbol to create a tier four magic tool. Even a small blacksmith workshop-like station was prepared in the room. Seeing the magic herbs and special metals below, Greyson knew that this engraving symbol was for the fire element. On one hand, he was glad to get a free tier four engraving symbol. On the other hand, Greyson was a bit worried about whether he would succeed. Glancing over the amount of materials, there was not too much if he needed multiple tries. Not that he did not have confidence in his smithing ability, but he succeeded only once before with a more basic symbol than the one in front of him.
"Since it does not specify what type of magic tool, I'll make a dagger. That way, even if I mess up, I have enough materials to keep trying. The worse that would happen then is getting punished." There were smaller tools he could choose, however, too small and the engraving portion afterwards gets harder.
"You should be prepared to wait for a little. This is not going to be as quick." Knowing that this would probably take him around half a day's time at least, Greyson forewarned Leilena.
"Of course, how could a tier four magic tool be easy? I'll just meditate. Take your time. First place is not as important as surviving. I'm shocked you're already a tier four blacksmith!" Leilena had no opinion. She was just glad that he was capable enough to solve this task. Being a tier four blacksmith at his age was an amazing accomplishment. If that Teacher Thraec from the Dalia Kingdom knew, he would probably be grinning ear-to-ear for weeks.
Smiling gratefully, Greyson felt some pressure release from his shoulders. He was glad he did this with his teacher. Other people might have rushed him without thinking of the difficulty. Ambitious as he was, he did desire first place. However, she was also right that leaving this dungeon alive was the most important.
Turning towards the door, Greyson sat in front of the engraving symbol. Analyzing each line, Greyson traced the symbol with his finger. After a couple of tries, he finally found the starting point. Afterwards, he practiced tracing the symbol in the air all the way through to in one shot. A couple hours passed and he moved to an open spot on the wall and used his mana to carve the symbol into the wall. Some failed, others succeeded. However, he did not stop practicing until his success rate gave him enough confidence to do the real thing. Although he would have enough materials for more than one try, succeeding on the first try was still preferable. Near the end, Greyson was completely out of mana, but he still reached a high level of certainty in engraving this symbol. Picking out the needed materials, he walked over to the smithing tools. Meditating for another couple of hours, he recovered his mana and reached a peak state of calm. Breathing deeply, he lit up a fire on his palm and began preparing the herbs and the metals. Balancing and smelting them together, the melted dagger metal was prepared correctly. Picking out the dagger mold of the ones available, Greyson poured the prepared molten metal inside. Quickly cooling it down with the ice element, the metal was ready to be tempered. Picking up the hammer, Greyson began to beat down the metal and occasionally reheating it. Since it was a dagger, the refining did not take as long as usual. A polished silver dagger slowly came into existence. Once he finished preparing the dagger, Greyson took a deep breath before moving to the next step. Channeling his mana, he began to engrave out the symbol. Almost painfully slow, he did not rush his movements and ensured the process was smooth with no mistakes.
When the last line connected with the beginning point, the symbol burned bright and the dagger floated up. Turning a bright red color, the dagger radiated a fiery heat. Not letting his exhaustion bring down his mood, Greyson laughed brightly while looking at the symbol slowly turn into lines crawling across the dagger. The fire eventually dissipated leaving just the beautiful dagger that slowly fell back down onto the table. Approaching swiftly, Greyson gently stroked the beautiful red dagger feeling happy. Running his mana through, he was curious towards the ability that the engraving symbol gave to the tool. Soon, a red shade of fire radiated of the dagger like a barrier. Smiling wryly, Greyson realized he used the symbol on the wrong type of magic tool. A lot of engraving symbols leaned towards either offense or defense, not many were in between. This one created a fire barrier and, if attacked, a fire hot enough to burn metal would erupt. An unsuspecting magician could truly be burnt apart by such a barrier. This was definitely a top tier four defensive symbol in the fire element. This type of ability could technically be used offensively as well, just that the user would have to nearly physically touch the person with the blade for it to work. Something like a dagger would be harder to use, especially since magicians like to keep distances from each other. Knights or even magic knights have too many advantages in close quarter combat that using a dagger would not be ideal. If used as a shield, the attacker could get burned when blocked or even the weapon used could be burned apart.
Not too upset about it, Greyson knew that he had memorized the symbol. Once he had free time, he could just make a shield and engrave the symbol once again. Leilena had also walked over with an excited expression.
"You succeeded?"
"Yes!" Greyson walked over to the door once more. Placing the dagger inside the hole, it disappeared. Some minutes later, the door clicked once again and started opening.
"Oh~ not bad~ you passed the second round. Now, time for the third round. I would be prepared! You will have to use more than just your brain for this test. I hope you di-... don't die~! Hehe..."
Greyson just rolled his eyes. He was no longer surprised by this crazy creator's words. Instead, he looked at the doors just praying in his mind: please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test...
Honestly, he was just so sick of these mind games. Something straightforward would be a nice breath of fresh air.
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Once they walked through the door, the scene around them changed once again. Not much was different, there were still stone doors with questions written. Face turning dark, Greyson feared that there would be more riddles. Just the three before were enough for him, couldn't it be a more physical test?
"Hehe~, welcome to the second stage. So, you survived..." The voice sighed.
Could you not sound so disappointed... Really speechless, Greyson could anticipate hearing this voice in his nightmares. What kind of crazy person built this dungeon?
"Well, since you were clever enough to get through the riddles, this proves you're at least not dumb. Probably. So now~... I will test your luck! If you are lucky, this second round will be a breeze. If you're not, well... I guess you're dead? Teehee."
A shiver made its way down Greyson's spine hearing the last giggle. Actually, ever since signing the contract with Lucius, Greyson's instincts towards things pertaining to fate and luck grew more sensitive. Although fairly vague and intangible, he was feeling pretty confident towards this level, so he felt that his luck and Leilena's luck would be enough to pass. Just what kind of luck is needed?
Curiously approaching the door, the pair read the words on the door. It was actually a task: Complete the alchemy formula. Underneath a bunch of magic herbs plus their amounts were written with three blank spots spread out within the list. On the ground in front of the door, a brush and ink were available to write the answer. Glancing toward Leilena with anticipation, Greyson truly hoped his feelings were right. Obviously, he was completely clueless towards anything to do with alchemy. Therefore, their only hope was Leilena. And fulfilling his hope, Leilena grinned widely before happily laughing.
"No wonder that voice mentioned luck. Hahaha, I guess you and I are pretty lucky!"
"You're an alchemist?" His face lighting up, Greyson quickly asked to confirm.
"Honestly, I'm barely a one-star alchemist. It was my side occupation." Slightly embarrassed, Leilena felt that the label of alchemist was too heavy.
"But you know the answer?"
"I think that's what the creator meant by luck. This is the most basic mana supplement potion that everyone learns. It's one of the first ones everyone who wants to be an alchemist memorizes. So, as long as you have an alchemist, it's super easy to pass. But, if you don't, this easy problem suddenly becomes much more difficult and possible impossible to solve."
Hearing this, understanding dawned on Greyson. It was true. Say, for example, he came here alone. At this step, he would have been stuck here possibly until he died. He did not know the first thing about alchemy even in passing. Blood running cold, Greyson started to realize that he had really underestimated dungeons. Based on the creator, these tests could be really random and nonsensical. Next time, he would have to prepare better. Maybe even start reading up on some of the other occupations. Not to become an expert but to at least not be ignorant. Actually, Leilena also realized that she had been too confident coming into the dungeon. Star rankings usually mean there is at least one strength-related test to pass, but they are not a comprehensive rating of what is necessary to get through the dungeon. Maybe later on there will be one test that one needs to be a magister level magician to pass, but all these other tests might not be possible for certain magisters to pass. Holding her chest, she felt relieved that she could solve at least this first one.
Picking up the brush, she wrote the amounts and names of the remaining necessary herbs for this potion. The ink lit up on the stone door and a click could be heard before the doors started to open. A little bit apprehensive, the pair looked at each other before finally stepping through to the next task.
Walking up to the door, after reading the words, it was Greyson's turn to smile. It seems his feelings were correct. Their luck continued. The task read: Play the song below. Underneath, two pages of sheet music with a basic tune was written. As long as you could read sheet music and had an instrument, you could pass this test.
"Looking at your expression, it seems it's your turn to solve this. If I remember correctly, you played the flute?"
"Yes! If I couldn't play this piece, Teacher Carlyle would have my head." Flipping his palm, Mesmer appeared in his hand. Caressing it fondly, he felt that it had been quite a while since he last played. Double-checking each note, Greyson really did not want to get electrocuted once more if that was still the punishment. Once he felt the song had been branded into his memory, he brought the flute up to his mouth. Soon, a beautiful sound broke out into the room. Flute notes echoed throughout as Leilena closed her eyes to listen in silence. The song was very simple and short, so only around a minute passed before Greyson was finished. Though, his interpretation could be slightly different from the original, the notes were all correct. A little worried that the creator would be too strict, he tightened his body and grit his teeth in preparation for a punishment. After all, he did not actually recognize the song, so he did not know the right tempo and phrasing. However, this time, it did not come. He heard a familiar click and opened his eyes to see the doors slowly creaking open. Brightly smiling, Greyson let out a sigh of relief.
"Hahaha, Grey Grey, there's no reason to be so scared." Watching his whole reaction through, Leilena giggled while poking fun.
"Hmph! When you suffer the same punishment, you can come judge me." Blushing a little, Greyson did feel like he might have overreacted slightly. Quickly getting up, he put Mesmer away and walked towards the next stage. Leilena continued chuckling behind him, but he decided to just ignore her.
Unsurprisingly, the next door contained a new challenge. Greyson's expression first lit up before his brows furrowed in seriousness. It was not that he was unable to complete it, but the level of difficulty suddenly went up from before. The door read: Use the materials and engraving symbol to create a tier four magic tool. Even a small blacksmith workshop-like station was prepared in the room. Seeing the magic herbs and special metals below, Greyson knew that this engraving symbol was for the fire element. On one hand, he was glad to get a free tier four engraving symbol. On the other hand, Greyson was a bit worried about whether he would succeed. Glancing over the amount of materials, there was not too much if he needed multiple tries. Not that he did not have confidence in his smithing ability, but he succeeded only once before with a more basic symbol than the one in front of him.
"Since it does not specify what type of magic tool, I'll make a dagger. That way, even if I mess up, I have enough materials to keep trying. The worse that would happen then is getting punished." There were smaller tools he could choose, however, too small and the engraving portion afterwards gets harder.
"You should be prepared to wait for a little. This is not going to be as quick." Knowing that this would probably take him around half a day's time at least, Greyson forewarned Leilena.
"Of course, how could a tier four magic tool be easy? I'll just meditate. Take your time. First place is not as important as surviving. I'm shocked you're already a tier four blacksmith!" Leilena had no opinion. She was just glad that he was capable enough to solve this task. Being a tier four blacksmith at his age was an amazing accomplishment. If that Teacher Thraec from the Dalia Kingdom knew, he would probably be grinning ear-to-ear for weeks.
Smiling gratefully, Greyson felt some pressure release from his shoulders. He was glad he did this with his teacher. Other people might have rushed him without thinking of the difficulty. Ambitious as he was, he did desire first place. However, she was also right that leaving this dungeon alive was the most important.
Turning towards the door, Greyson sat in front of the engraving symbol. Analyzing each line, Greyson traced the symbol with his finger. After a couple of tries, he finally found the starting point. Afterwards, he practiced tracing the symbol in the air all the way through to in one shot. A couple hours passed and he moved to an open spot on the wall and used his mana to carve the symbol into the wall. Some failed, others succeeded. However, he did not stop practicing until his success rate gave him enough confidence to do the real thing. Although he would have enough materials for more than one try, succeeding on the first try was still preferable. Near the end, Greyson was completely out of mana, but he still reached a high level of certainty in engraving this symbol. Picking out the needed materials, he walked over to the smithing tools. Meditating for another couple of hours, he recovered his mana and reached a peak state of calm. Breathing deeply, he lit up a fire on his palm and began preparing the herbs and the metals. Balancing and smelting them together, the melted dagger metal was prepared correctly. Picking out the dagger mold of the ones available, Greyson poured the prepared molten metal inside. Quickly cooling it down with the ice element, the metal was ready to be tempered. Picking up the hammer, Greyson began to beat down the metal and occasionally reheating it. Since it was a dagger, the refining did not take as long as usual. A polished silver dagger slowly came into existence. Once he finished preparing the dagger, Greyson took a deep breath before moving to the next step. Channeling his mana, he began to engrave out the symbol. Almost painfully slow, he did not rush his movements and ensured the process was smooth with no mistakes.
When the last line connected with the beginning point, the symbol burned bright and the dagger floated up. Turning a bright red color, the dagger radiated a fiery heat. Not letting his exhaustion bring down his mood, Greyson laughed brightly while looking at the symbol slowly turn into lines crawling across the dagger. The fire eventually dissipated leaving just the beautiful dagger that slowly fell back down onto the table. Approaching swiftly, Greyson gently stroked the beautiful red dagger feeling happy. Running his mana through, he was curious towards the ability that the engraving symbol gave to the tool. Soon, a red shade of fire radiated of the dagger like a barrier. Smiling wryly, Greyson realized he used the symbol on the wrong type of magic tool. A lot of engraving symbols leaned towards either offense or defense, not many were in between. This one created a fire barrier and, if attacked, a fire hot enough to burn metal would erupt. An unsuspecting magician could truly be burnt apart by such a barrier. This was definitely a top tier four defensive symbol in the fire element. This type of ability could technically be used offensively as well, just that the user would have to nearly physically touch the person with the blade for it to work. Something like a dagger would be harder to use, especially since magicians like to keep distances from each other. Knights or even magic knights have too many advantages in close quarter combat that using a dagger would not be ideal. If used as a shield, the attacker could get burned when blocked or even the weapon used could be burned apart.
Not too upset about it, Greyson knew that he had memorized the symbol. Once he had free time, he could just make a shield and engrave the symbol once again. Leilena had also walked over with an excited expression.
"You succeeded?"
"Yes!" Greyson walked over to the door once more. Placing the dagger inside the hole, it disappeared. Some minutes later, the door clicked once again and started opening.
"Oh~ not bad~ you passed the second round. Now, time for the third round. I would be prepared! You will have to use more than just your brain for this test. I hope you di-... don't die~! Hehe..."
Greyson just rolled his eyes. He was no longer surprised by this crazy creator's words. Instead, he looked at the doors just praying in his mind: please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test...
Honestly, he was just so sick of these mind games. Something straightforward would be a nice breath of fresh air.
Once they walked through the door, the scene around them changed once again. Not much was different, there were still stone doors with questions written. Face turning dark, Greyson feared that there would be more riddles. Just the three before were enough for him, couldn't it be a more physical test?"Hehe~, welcome to the second stage. So, you survived..." The voice sighed.Could you not sound so disappointed...Really speechless, Greyson could anticipate hearing this voice in his nightmares. What kind of crazy person built this dungeon?"Well, since you were clever enough to get through the riddles, this proves you're at least not dumb. Probably. So now~... I will test your luck! If you are lucky, this second round will be a breeze. If you're not, well... I guess you're dead? Teehee."A shiver made its way down Greyson's spine hearing the last giggle. Actually, ever since signing the contract with Lucius, Greyson's instincts towards things pertaining to fate and luck grew more sensitive. Although fairly vague and intangible, he was feeling pretty confident towards this level, so he felt that his luck and Leilena's luck would be enough to pass. Just what kind of luck is needed?Curiously approaching the door, the pair read the words on the door. It was actually a task: Complete the alchemy formula. Underneath a bunch of magic herbs plus their amounts were written with three blank spots spread out within the list. On the ground in front of the door, a brush and ink were available to write the answer. Glancing toward Leilena with anticipation, Greyson truly hoped his feelings were right. Obviously, he was completely clueless towards anything to do with alchemy. Therefore, their only hope was Leilena. And fulfilling his hope, Leilena grinned widely before happily laughing."No wonder that voice mentioned luck. Hahaha, I guess you and I are pretty lucky!""You're an alchemist?" His face lighting up, Greyson quickly asked to confirm."Honestly, I'm barely a one-star alchemist. It was my side occupation." Slightly embarrassed, Leilena felt that the label of alchemist was too heavy."But you know the answer?""I think that's what the creator meant by luck. This is the most basic mana supplement potion that everyone learns. It's one of the first ones everyone who wants to be an alchemist memorizes. So, as long as you have an alchemist, it's super easy to pass. But, if you don't, this easy problem suddenly becomes much more difficult and possible impossible to solve."Hearing this, understanding dawned on Greyson. It was true. Say, for example, he came here alone. At this step, he would have been stuck here possibly until he died. He did not know the first thing about alchemy even in passing. Blood running cold, Greyson started to realize that he had really underestimated dungeons. Based on the creator, these tests could be really random and nonsensical. Next time, he would have to prepare better. Maybe even start reading up on some of the other occupations. Not to become an expert but to at least not be ignorant. Actually, Leilena also realized that she had been too confident coming into the dungeon. Star rankings usually mean there is at least one strength-related test to pass, but they are not a comprehensive rating of what is necessary to get through the dungeon. Maybe later on there will be one test that one needs to be a magister level magician to pass, but all these other tests might not be possible for certain magisters to pass. Holding her chest, she felt relieved that she could solve at least this first one.Picking up the brush, she wrote the amounts and names of the remaining necessary herbs for this potion. The ink lit up on the stone door and a click could be heard before the doors started to open. A little bit apprehensive, the pair looked at each other before finally stepping through to the next task.Walking up to the door, after reading the words, it was Greyson's turn to smile. It seems his feelings were correct. Their luck continued. The task read: Play the song below. Underneath, two pages of sheet music with a basic tune was written. As long as you could read sheet music and had an instrument, you could pass this test."Looking at your expression, it seems it's your turn to solve this. If I remember correctly, you played the flute?""Yes! If I couldn't play this piece, Teacher Carlyle would have my head." Flipping his palm, Mesmer appeared in his hand. Caressing it fondly, he felt that it had been quite a while since he last played. Double-checking each note, Greyson really did not want to get electrocuted once more if that was still the punishment. Once he felt the song had been branded into his memory, he brought the flute up to his mouth. Soon, a beautiful sound broke out into the room. Flute notes echoed throughout as Leilena closed her eyes to listen in silence. The song was very simple and short, so only around a minute passed before Greyson was finished. Though, his interpretation could be slightly different from the original, the notes were all correct. A little worried that the creator would be too strict, he tightened his body and grit his teeth in preparation for a punishment. After all, he did not actually recognize the song, so he did not know the right tempo and phrasing. However, this time, it did not come. He heard a familiar click and opened his eyes to see the doors slowly creaking open. Brightly smiling, Greyson let out a sigh of relief."Hahaha, Grey Grey, there's no reason to be so scared." Watching his whole reaction through, Leilena giggled while poking fun."Hmph! When you suffer the same punishment, you can come judge me." Blushing a little, Greyson did feel like he might have overreacted slightly. Quickly getting up, he put Mesmer away and walked towards the next stage. Leilena continued chuckling behind him, but he decided to just ignore her.Unsurprisingly, the next door contained a new challenge. Greyson's expression first lit up before his brows furrowed in seriousness. It was not that he was unable to complete it, but the level of difficulty suddenly went up from before. The door read: Use the materials and engraving symbol to create a tier four magic tool. Even a small blacksmith workshop-like station was prepared in the room. Seeing the magic herbs and special metals below, Greyson knew that this engraving symbol was for the fire element. On one hand, he was glad to get a free tier four engraving symbol. On the other hand, Greyson was a bit worried about whether he would succeed. Glancing over the amount of materials, there was not too much if he needed multiple tries. Not that he did not have confidence in his smithing ability, but he succeeded only once before with a more basic symbol than the one in front of him."Since it does not specify what type of magic tool, I'll make a dagger. That way, even if I mess up, I have enough materials to keep trying. The worse that would happen then is getting punished." There were smaller tools he could choose, however, too small and the engraving portion afterwards gets harder."You should be prepared to wait for a little. This is not going to be as quick." Knowing that this would probably take him around half a day's time at least, Greyson forewarned Leilena."Of course, how could a tier four magic tool be easy? I'll just meditate. Take your time. First place is not as important as surviving. I'm shocked you're already a tier four blacksmith!" Leilena had no opinion. She was just glad that he was capable enough to solve this task. Being a tier four blacksmith at his age was an amazing accomplishment. If that Teacher Thraec from the Dalia Kingdom knew, he would probably be grinning ear-to-ear for weeks.Smiling gratefully, Greyson felt some pressure release from his shoulders. He was glad he did this with his teacher. Other people might have rushed him without thinking of the difficulty. Ambitious as he was, he did desire first place. However, she was also right that leaving this dungeon alive was the most important.Turning towards the door, Greyson sat in front of the engraving symbol. Analyzing each line, Greyson traced the symbol with his finger. After a couple of tries, he finally found the starting point. Afterwards, he practiced tracing the symbol in the air all the way through to in one shot. A couple hours passed and he moved to an open spot on the wall and used his mana to carve the symbol into the wall. Some failed, others succeeded. However, he did not stop practicing until his success rate gave him enough confidence to do the real thing. Although he would have enough materials for more than one try, succeeding on the first try was still preferable. Near the end, Greyson was completely out of mana, but he still reached a high level of certainty in engraving this symbol. Picking out the needed materials, he walked over to the smithing tools. Meditating for another couple of hours, he recovered his mana and reached a peak state of calm. Breathing deeply, he lit up a fire on his palm and began preparing the herbs and the metals. Balancing and smelting them together, the melted dagger metal was prepared correctly. Picking out the dagger mold of the ones available, Greyson poured the prepared molten metal inside. Quickly cooling it down with the ice element, the metal was ready to be tempered. Picking up the hammer, Greyson began to beat down the metal and occasionally reheating it. Since it was a dagger, the refining did not take as long as usual. A polished silver dagger slowly came into existence. Once he finished preparing the dagger, Greyson took a deep breath before moving to the next step. Channeling his mana, he began to engrave out the symbol. Almost painfully slow, he did not rush his movements and ensured the process was smooth with no mistakes.When the last line connected with the beginning point, the symbol burned bright and the dagger floated up. Turning a bright red color, the dagger radiated a fiery heat. Not letting his exhaustion bring down his mood, Greyson laughed brightly while looking at the symbol slowly turn into lines crawling across the dagger. The fire eventually dissipated leaving just the beautiful dagger that slowly fell back down onto the table. Approaching swiftly, Greyson gently stroked the beautiful red dagger feeling happy. Running his mana through, he was curious towards the ability that the engraving symbol gave to the tool. Soon, a red shade of fire radiated of the dagger like a barrier. Smiling wryly, Greyson realized he used the symbol on the wrong type of magic tool. A lot of engraving symbols leaned towards either offense or defense, not many were in between. This one created a fire barrier and, if attacked, a fire hot enough to burn metal would erupt. An unsuspecting magician could truly be burnt apart by such a barrier. This was definitely a top tier four defensive symbol in the fire element. This type of ability could technically be used offensively as well, just that the user would have to nearly physically touch the person with the blade for it to work. Something like a dagger would be harder to use, especially since magicians like to keep distances from each other. Knights or even magic knights have too many advantages in close quarter combat that using a dagger would not be ideal. If used as a shield, the attacker could get burned when blocked or even the weapon used could be burned apart.Not too upset about it, Greyson knew that he had memorized the symbol. Once he had free time, he could just make a shield and engrave the symbol once again. Leilena had also walked over with an excited expression."You succeeded?""Yes!" Greyson walked over to the door once more. Placing the dagger inside the hole, it disappeared. Some minutes later, the door clicked once again and started opening."Oh~ not bad~ you passed the second round. Now, time for the third round. I would be prepared! You will have to use more than just your brain for this test. I hope you di-... don't die~! Hehe..."Greyson just rolled his eyes. He was no longer surprised by this crazy creator's words. Instead, he looked at the doors just praying in his mind:please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test, please be a fighting test...Honestly, he was just so sick of these mind games. Something straightforward would be a nice breath of fresh air.
