As soon as I said that I could do all 10,000 rings in half a day, Goddess Zeta angrily stood up.
"Brat! Are you challenging me?!"
The air shook as a powerful force pressed down on everyone in the room. However, only Guren, Wan Li, and Wan Er were forced down to one knee. The rest didn't even blink under her pressure.
Ember, Fang, and I were already used to getting bathed in a god's pressure. Igni has improved a lot since she evolved to the 6th stage and is now almost unaffected by it. Ying Yue and Fina both had a special constitution that made them immune to such things. Only Guren and the Wan sisters were left vulnerable to such intimidating air.
"Please calm down; that wasn't my intention."
I quickly exclaimed. However, she seemed to have not heard my words as she continued to rant.
"I admit that you have skills, but don't you dare look down on a goddess!"
She was completely enraged. Did I unknowingly step on a landmine? I turned to God Zeshion, but he was just smiling amusedly as he sipped his coffee.
"A fight! I challenge you to a crafting contest! I'll prove to you why I'm called the best artificer in the world!"
"... What?"
That escalated quickly. Rather, the best artificer in the world? I thought I knew every common piece of information about god tamers and their tamed monsters, but to think that I missed this bit...
"Rather, isn't someone called SKX the one known as the best artificer in the world?"
That should be the name of the undisputed best artificer in the world. It was a famous name, so I shouldn't be mistaken. It was even made into the brand name for a lot of tools that help people in their everyday lives.
Hearing my mumbling, goddess Zeta harrumphed before she smugly replied.
"SKX is my pseudonym."
A top-tier artificer!
Now, I think I know just why she was so angry at me. She must've felt her pride trampled by me when I claimed that we could produce more of the rings than she could.
'Although that wasn't my intention, competing with her now is nothing but a plus for us in this situation.'
If we did compete, then more likely than not, we would finish the 10,000 rings that we need in less than half a day. Rather, since it was still early morning right now, if we could maintain a constant pace, we'd finish everything around lunchtime.
Surely, when her head cools down, she'll realize that copying her work at a faster pace than she could make it isn't something worth getting angry for. Let's just hope for that to happen.
"Alright, I accept!"
After I declared that, God Zeshion quickly stood up and acted like the announcer of the match.
"Then, both of you, come here!"
I stood up from my chair and went to the seat God Zeshion was pointing at before plopping down on it. Goddess Zeta was about three seats away from me, sitting comfortably with a confident smile.
"Okay! The rules would be simple. Ember here would create the base rings while the two of you compete on who can successfully engrave more rings than the other!"
Ember, whose name was called, quickly moved between us and stood still.
"Wait!"
Before God Zeshion was able to signal the start, however, Goddess Zeta raised her hand. She then waved her arm slightly, causing a large block of spiky black crystal to drop before Ember.
"For the gem part, use this crystal. It's called a Stasicrystal."
I looked at the large crystal form that dropped behind Ember and was amazed by how the space energy weaved beautifully around it. It was as if a school of fish was swimming around a peaceful reef.
"That looks beautiful... and expensive."
I was thinking it was a waste to use such a beautiful gem just for a simple ring; however, Goddess Zeta begged to differ.
"You're the weird one for making a gem out of glass and still making it work like normal! One normally can't enchant an elemental array onto an object with a different element!"
"You said normally, so that means there's a precedent that made you use ambiguous words, right?"
"Right... And he's sitting to my left right now."
"..."
I didn't expect that. Rather, I knew nothing about artifact-making before I tried it today anyway, so I'm basically clueless about all the rules behind it.
"Both contenders, are you ready?"
As if to interrupt, God Zeshion quickly asked. At his words, I tensed up and started warming up my fingers. Goddess Zeta just closed her eyes and patiently waited for the start.
Before the signal even came, Ember had already started creating the rings. She was using the same method I did, but she did it all in parallel. She was creating six rings simultaneously!
After about ten seconds passed, the first batch was done. They were completely identical to the original rings, almost unable to be differentiated by a single glance.
As soon as the rings dropped to the table between us, God Zeshion took a deep breath and shouted.
"Begin!"
Along with the signal, I reached for a ring and quickly did the engraving. I looked at it closely, ensuring that I didn't miss a single line of the engraved pattern. About three seconds later, I completed the first ring. I threw it to the other side of the table and was about to reach for another ring, only to find that Goddess Zeta had already taken all five and was working on them simultaneously.
"AH! Unfair!"
We didn't really place any rules on the contest, so I can't call her out for cheating. Although what she did counts as interference with her competitor, she was slowed down by doing several rings at once. When Ember's next batch of rings came, Goddess Zeta had yet to complete her batch.
"The early bird takes the worm!"
I copied her behavior and took all six blank rings. With this, when she finishes before Ember's next batch comes, she'll have a few seconds of delay.
The competition to find out who's faster turned into a contest of "who can better cheat the other," where we tried to one-up each other as the battle went on.
Time passed, and noon quickly came. Before us, 11,000 rings were completed and ready to be equipped.
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