With the crowd cheering one more time in response to Julian's words, the latter went ahead and laid out the rules that would be governing the forging duel between Valyr and Theraldine.
"First and foremost, I shall be the arbiter of the forging duel between the two young and talented blacksmiths we have here today," said Julian once the crowd became silent. "Though I shall be enlisting the help of a couple high-tier blacksmiths in the background to determine the winner of the forging duel, I shall have the final say on the judgment."
"I presume none of the people here have any complaints with that, right?" Asking this question to the audience surrounding the stage, Julian looked at them with rapt attention, wanting to see if anyone was going to voice any dissent towards the matter. Seeing that there were none, Julian faintly nodded before proceeding to move onto the next rule.
"Second, the two duelists shall not disturb the other in any way, may it be through intentional distraction, sabotaging one's work, or anything that would fall under the scope of affecting the other's work."
"The duelists shall be given a total of three warnings if they were to intentionally distract their opponent from putting all of their concentration on their work. Once a fourth warning has been given, the one that has been given the fourth warning shall be disqualified, while the other side shall be deemed as winner by default."
"Of course, the duelists having conversations at idle times are allowed. After all, the early portions of the forging process more or less consists of having to wait for materials to reach the optimal forging temperature," added Julian, making it so that the rules were stringent yet not at the same time.
"Aside from those two rules, the duelists are free to do whatever they want and use whatever means they have during the forging process. All special skills and special forging equipment that the duelist might have before the beginning of the forging duel could be used since those are considered a type of asset."
"With that, the two of them shall be forging what is considered one of the most difficult types of equipment for a blacksmith to forge." As Julian said these words, the interest of the audience had been piqued, prompting them to lean a bit closer to hear the man's next words better.
"To those that are part of the Blacksmith Guild, or perhaps a blacksmith not affiliated with the guild yet has accrued tons of experience, I'm certain that you already know what I'm talking about," said Julian, to which a considerable portion nodded in response, their expressions solemn. "As for those that only have a vague idea, or those that are truly not in the know, the type of equipment I am talking about are artifact replicas."
"These types of equipment can be categorized into three stages, namely Emulations, Imitations, and Replicas. These artifact replicas are what our two duelists shall be attempting to forge for today's forging duel."
"The artifact they shall choose to replicate are up to their own discretion." After saying these words, Julian then headed to an area that allowed him to get a view of the entire main hall while remaining hidden from the audience. Seeing that some people from the audience still looked around in search of his presence, Julian's voice soon resounded throughout the main hall, prompting everyone to focus their attention on the stage before him.
"You may now begin."
"Good luck." Saying these words to Valyr, Theraldine went ahead and began to light a fire in the furnace provided to her, keeping an eye on its temperature from time to time.
"Same to you." Unsurprisingly, the young man also gave the young woman his well wishes before putting all of his focus on the task at hand. Lighting a small flame that would kickstart the roaring flames of the furnace, the young man soon began to chuck in a great amount of fuel into it, fanning the flames as he gradually got the furnace up to the temperature he needed.
'Hmm… have I upgraded my forging skills yet? Not sure.' While continuing to watch the flames within the furnace getting to the required temperature needed for his materials, a thought surfaced within Valyr's mind, causing him to bring up his list of skills in front of him not long after.
'Huh. I haven't.' Wryly smiling as he asked himself why he hadn't prioritized upgrading his forging skills even after he had already gone through two batches of ten skills, Valyr decided to go ahead and upgrade all of his forging skills to the limit while the furnace was still in the midst of warming up.
Taking in a couple of deep breaths as he reminded himself that what he was doing was an incredibly stupid idea, the young man soon took out 10 Uncommon grade Skill Keys from his spatial bracelet before proceeding to upgrade all of his forging skills to Level 20, the maximum level that was possible for an Uncommon grade skill to have.
Whoosh!
"Mngh…" Instantly being bombarded by multiple waves of information that clashed in his mind, Valyr let out a faint groan as he sat down on the floor, trying to reduce the chances of him hurting himself as much as possible. Naturally, this action made quite a few from the audience look at the young man in curiosity, wondering to themselves why he had stopped focusing his attention on the furnace.
"How reckless." As for Julian, who was currently watching the two start up their respective furnaces, a bitter smile appeared on his face as he quickly realized what Valyr was doing. "You could've upgraded your skills while the stage was being prepared, you know."
"Oh well. I'm sure he knows what he's doing. After all, he wouldn't be doing it in the first place if he didn't." Though a hint of concern appeared on the man's expression, Julian eventually decided to wait and see what would happen, trusting that the young man knew the consequences of his actions.
"Haah… I am never going to do something like that in this kind of situation ever again." Fortunately, after the initial waves of information had subsided, Valyr had more or less regained control over his mind, allowing him to return most of his focus towards heating up the furnace whilst he continued to gain more information regarding his skills. "Then again, I really should have prioritized upgrading those before any of the combat skills I have."
"In any case…"
"Let's get this show on the road."
