CLANG!
"!?"
?
When the sharp sounded in the hall, many stopped forging and turned toward Khal with widened eyes. Even Seila, who was in the middle of his Soul Thread Refining process glanced behind for a split second, her eyes shaking from tremor!
"This boy... He already began to form the Soul Essence!" Elder Sige cried inwardly, feeling his palm slightly turn sweaty from nervousness.
Seila seeing this clenched her teeth firmly together and turned back around while her eyes flashed with a profound glint.
"I won't lose. Not this time!"
CLANG!
"HUH?" Elder Sige couldn't help but exclaim out loud with shock as another sharp and metallic pitch sounded, but this time from another section!
"Both of them are pulling their metal's Soul Essence out!? At the age of 17? Heavens, just how talented are they?!"
CLANG!
Elder Sige and almost everyone present watched as Seila and Khal struck their steel, giving their material a unique aura with each strike!
After the 4th strike, Seila's metal burst out with a powerful aura, emitting a gentle light that only those with Soul Essence could do!
"She succeeded... At such a young age, she pulled her material's Soul Essence out..." Elder Sige felt stupefied, but it wasn't long before another sharp pitch appeared, shifting his and Seila's gaze toward Khal.
CLANG!
"!?"
Everyone stared at Khal with widened eyes and loosed jaws as that was his 5th strike yet the Soul Essence was still not formed!
CLANG!
"Heavens... Wasn't that his sixth strike already?"
CLANG!
"That's... The seventh..."
And just as those words left his mouth, Khal raised his hammer for one last time and struck the glowing metal, sending a powerful ripple everywhere!
BAM!
In a blink, blinding light erupted from the Flaming Sun Steel, while the anvil below it started to show signs of melting! Even the hammer inside Khal's grasp started to melt a bit, that's just how ridiculously hot the steel was burning!!
"Fuck!" Khal had to jump several meters back from the steel as his robe showed signs of turning into ash while his skin felt a little bit burnt!
"He..." Elder Sige wanted to say something but realized he was incapable of saying a word. Khal's and Seila's performance just now slapped him so hard in the fact that he turned speechless.
[Notify! 'Soul Essence' successfully created!]
[Forming 'Power Core'!]
[Warning! Forming 'Power Core' is improbable!]
[Please place a 'Core' into the 'Scorching Sun Steel' first!]
Khal listened to Nova's voice in his head and couldn't help but form a satisfied smile.
Elder Sige stared at Khal for a long time before clearing his throat and teleporting both him and Seila before him onto the platform.
Many participants there were shocked to see this sight, but as they were yet to finish forging their material they had no choice but to continue their work.
"Congratulations, both of you had exceeded my expectations." smiled Elder Sige and took out several Golden Stars from his spatial ring before giving 2 pieces to Seila while 3 pieces to Khal.
When Khal saw that he got 1 star more than Seila he looked confused and glanced up at Elder Sige.
Elder Sige, however, kind of anticipated this gaze from Khal thus just smiled before explaining everything, "As you may know, Beginners Event is only about showing your skills how you can forge, refine, and temper normal materials thus your performance could have been said was equal with those in the Advanced Event!"
Then he continued, "Occasionally, one could only get 1 Golden Star in their first competition, on the Beginner Event, but because both of you have achieved a requirement that is a must in an Advanced Event, both of you will get more than 1 Golden Star."
"But Respected Elder, why do I get 1 star less than him? I clearly did the same thing as him and employed the Soul Thread Tempering Technique successfully! So why?" Seila seemed angry as she couldn't accept nor understand why Khal got 3, while she only got 2 Golden Stars!
Elder Sige nodded as he knew it will cause a bit of confusion hence began to explain, "Your answer is indeed a good one and the answer for it is quite a simple one."
"While you have forged a High-Quality material and formed its Soul Essence, he did the exact same thing, but with a Supreme-Quality material while the number of Soul Threads he had to forge with was twice as yours too."
Elder Sige seeing that Seila couldn't accept this sighed and said, "Even though your talent is exceptional without question, you still chose to forge a High-Quality material, which is a level lower than his. However, exactly because of that level, which is as vast as heaven and earth, does he deserves one Golden Star more."
'...' Seila still seemed to say something, but no matter what she tried to think about, Elder Sige was right. If she would have forged the same quality material as Khal, then she could have won, but like this...
"I want another try!" said Seila abruptly, shocking both Khal and Elder Sige deeply.
"You want what?" asked Elder Sige from her, thinking he just misheard Seila.
"I said, I want another try. Should I pronounce it word by word or did you understand it?"
"!?" Khal was speechless what he heard and shifted his gaze at Elder Sige, waiting to see how he will act.
Elder Sige seemed deeply dumbfounded by Seila's arrogant behavior too, but as he knew just what kind of background she had he just swallowed back the words he wanted to say next and smiled wryly.
"I fear that is an impossible request that I cannot allow not because I don't want to, but because I don't qualify to do so. Every participant has only one try and once they finished their attempt, let it be a successful one or a failure, they cannot try again until next year."
'...'
At this moment, Seila's complexion changed between several colors and emotions, the latter one especially among the malicious ones, but as she had no power over this competition's rules, she could only turn around and storm toward the exit among low curses.
BAM!
Slamming the door shut that even others in the next hall could hear, Seila burst out of the building, completely ignoring the confused stares on her skin.
Meanwhile, still inside the hall Khal and Elder Sige looked at this sight in silence, none of them understanding just why did Seila seem so angry over something so meaningless thing.
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