Chapter 277 - Are They Even Skilled?
Jhonny was snoring peacefully at his table , whenever the camera would cut to him , a slight snoring sound would be audible. While although Fatty Kalash did not speak like a pirate anymore , he was still half naked with a eye patch now over his head instead of his eye , his image as a jester had been pretty much set in stone.
These were the representatives of Japan , currently the number one leader of the medal tally. The Japanese felt like hiding their faces in shame when the commentators linked them with their cultured and well disciplined country.
However the attention was significantly shifted from Jhonny and Fatty Kalash to the rest of the participants. Sometimes during the forging process the metal would crack , sometimes the alloy made would be impure and brittle , moreover the creations kept getting misaligned or broken .
This was not the case for one person or two , periodically every five minutes or so , someone would make a blunder.
At first those who made a mistake were being sneered upon by the other participants , however only a few seconds later they made the same mistakes. It was very abnormal that everyone started to make mistakes in the arena.
One after another , the parts made would not fit properly , or even the simplest designs like a short knife , or a kunai would turn to have the edges having bend marks or the alloy being overall of poor quality.
Shockingly bronze and silver products became the standard , some produced damaged light gold items , however overall the quality was pitiful.
Naturally the crowd went from being excited about the competition to just stupefied , however when more and more of them made mistakes the crowd started to become agitated and angry , they were now starting to slur insults at their countrymen.
" Who let these idiots represent Hungary , even I can atleast forge a light gold chainmail , who is this unskilled brat , bronze item? Seriously? Might as well quit now and save us the same ! ".
" What is that thing u made , it doesn't look like a axe at all , the handle and the body don't fit , the body is actually curved , what joke is this , talking soo big on the forums , calling out every other master forger , when my newbie son in his first month in the game makes better axes than you , I spit on you , you are a disgrace ".
" BOOOOOOOO! ".
" BOOOOOOOO!".
" FAKE BLACKSMITHS ".
" ALL OF YOU ARE A DISGRACE ".
" SHAME OF THE COUNTRY ".
" An amateur in my village will do better than you lot ".
" If I ever see them calling themselves master blacksmiths again , I'd spit on their faces ".
" BOOOOOOO".
"BOOOOOO"
The crowd were extremely dissapointed and hurled insults after insults on the forgers , under the increased pressure , even those who were doing relatively well made mistakes ruining their creations. Then even their countrymen began to boo , giving more pressure than already was.
The Blacksmithing event If to be summarised in a few words , could be said to be ' Dissapointing to watch'.
There was no splendid display of skill , no breathtaking creations , no legendary items , it was truly very dissapointing.
At the end of 24 hours , the judging of the items started . The judgement was done in a style where a AI judge would walk over to a created piece and you explain the working to the AI in your own words , then depending on your reply of your work and the usefullness , the AI grades the creation out of 10.
The first and foremost judging criteria was the system assigned grade. Any epic item without even the basic of uses would outclass a dark gold item with many uses. Only within same rank did this judging criteria work.
Aka if two epic items were to be displayed , the one having the higher score out of 10 from the judge would win.
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(Very loud?Booing noises from the crowd )
Derek Ray : Well the blacksmithing event did not turn out the we would have hoped eh Lee .
Lee Dixon : Yes Derek , you can hear the anger of the fans , it's hard to speak over them , things have truly been not upto the mark for this competition.
Derek Ray : Out of 250 nations that participated in this event 150 don't even have a presentable final piece Lee, like isn't that ridiculous , not even a damaged item to show , all they have is scraps . How bad does one have to be at blacksmithing to have such a result. And these are the best of what a nation has to offer.
Lee Dixon : No offense to the countries that they are from , but I think the selection committee has made a huge mistake , such guys should not be participating in this stage , I think the pressure got to them Derek , they might have been excellent forgers , but only those with ice in their veins can perform unbothered when billions are watching.
Derek Ray : Absolutely Lee , although the two japanese participants looked like the oddballs at the start , soo far they have presented the best products , they were roudy and they were unfazed in the face of such pressure , we were laughing at them earlier , but who is laughing now? The pair top the table.
Lee Dixon : Absolutely Derek , the one called Jhonny English is currently at the lead with a epic rated dagger , he completed his forging task within the first few hours and then pretty much napped through the competition without care. Judging by his speed and quality of work , he is someone who truly belongs on this stage , this is what the standard I came in expecting .
Derek Ray : Absolutely , what a performance , there is also the clown pirate , the other Japanese , a dark gold rated chainmail?with weight reducing technology , it got a 8/10 evaluation by the proctor , currently in second place. Who would have thought that the loudmouth half naked pirate would be a title contender?
Lee Dixon : Although nothing is final yet , only 7 more products are left to judge.if things stand the way they are it would be another double medal for japan.
Derek Ray : The island country is doing wonders Derek , back to back potential double medals , they must be having a great day. However what's more interesting is , both the Japanese contestants in this competition are also from the True Elites guild , the same guild that saw the double medal winners of the first event! What kind of a guild is the True Elites Lee , now I'm extremely curious , to have soo many high level talents .
Lee Dixon : I would love to find out after the event ends Lee , I have recieved permission to interview the winners , let's see if they win I would love to ask them .
Derek Ray : OHHH , a big blow to Japan , Kalash slips from second place , the Scottish forger clutches silver with a 9/10 rating on his dark gold item .
3 more pieces to judge , can Japan hold onto bronze?
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( The Japanese headquarters , real world )
The generals were watching the event with grave expressions , just when the chances of another double medal looked strong suddenly a competitior clutched onto silver medal pushing Kalash down the rung. There were 3 more pieces left to judge and one of them was from the renowned forger Hephaestus Jr .
Anticipation was building high .... ( To be continued )