"Let’s get some status." After Sam said those words, everyone was dumbfounded. They don’t know how they came but they followed Sam, to a place. The place is the Artisan Tower. When Philip and others saw that they felt dumbfounded. They don’t know why they came here. Artisan Tower is the branch of Artisan guild. In every significant city Artisan Guild opened an Artisan tower.
The Artisan tower is one of the four places that is not under the jurisdiction of the city lord. The other three places are the Pharmaceutical Guild, The Inscription Guild and The Formation Guild. These four places have a lot of influence since they bring most of the trade to a city. The four places have four towers in the city. The four towers are powerful not only because there is an expert whose strength is similar to that of the city lord, but also, they have high statuses. The heads all the four towers are Rank 2 in their professions. So, even city lord has to show some respect to them.
So, when Sam came to the Artisan guild, they thought that Sam might know someone here that could help him out of the situation. Then Marvin asked. "Sam, do you know someone here?" Marvin.
"No." Sam’s reply surprised them.
"If you don’t know why are we here?" Freya asked this time.
"Well, didn’t I say earlier, to get some status of course." Sam said matter of factly.
"Sam, did you study Weapon smithy or forging before?" Philip asked after some thought. He guessed why Sam came here, but he didn’t dare think of the possibility. Sam didn’t answer to his question and just walked to the counter. Sam asked the receptionist.
"I want to take the exam."
"Here, fill the form and go to the first floor." The receptionist who is a young lady said with slight annoyance as she looked at him and passed a form. Sam looked at the form and took a look at it. It is an apprentice examination form. The apprentice examination form is used for people who want to be an apprentice of some already ranked Artisan. The test will help analyse the aptitude and knowledge of the candidate and the result will be posted in all the Artisan guilds, if any of the Artisans like the candidate they will offer him a chance to be an apprentice. That is how the system works in all the other guilds as well. When Philip and others looked at the form, they thought they finally understood what Sam planned. Philip can’t help but say. "Sam even if you can get high score and able to become an apprentice for a high ranked artisan, it would be too late. We don’t have much time." Philip said a little concerned. Sam smiled and about to answer then he heard someone from behind.
"You finally came from the hole you are hiding." Hearing that Sam and his companions all frowned. They turned towards the person who spoke and saw Leonard standing there with an ugly expression. Then Leonard saw the form in Sam’s hand and said with a mocking sneer.
"You really are country bumpkin. Do you really think just because you can take an examination you will definitely become an apprentice of an artisan? Listen carefully, I am already an artisan of an Elder of the tower, he is about to become a rank 2 artisan. Do you still think that anyone will take you as an apprentice in the entire Artisan tower? Dream on. I will deal with you as soon as the admission tournament is over, I will make you regret ever born."
Sam didn’t mind him at all and just walked to the counter and said to the receptionist lady. "Miss, I want to take an Artisan exam, not an apprentice exam." Hearing what Sam said everyone looked dumbfounded. The sneer on the Leonard’s face froze. Then he burst in to a laughter. Receptionist also looked Sam up and down with a frown on her face. She seemed to be annoyed for some reason. Sam thought inwardly.
Receptionist just looked at Sam’s handsome face and said with the same frown. "Get lost" Then she continued her working.
This time it was Sam’s turn to frown. He really felt displeased. Meanwhile the receptionist also felt displeased. She is actually someone of lofty status. Her father has punished her by making her work as a receptionist for today, which made her temper flaring up quite since morning. Now a guy who is younger than her is asking to take an Artisan exam. Isn’t it a joke? It is good thing that he is handsome, otherwise I would have kicked him out myself. She inwardly thought. Then she heard a voice which made her annoyance even more.
"Hello young miss, I want to take the Artisan exam." Sam repeated himself again. He got a good look at the woman. The first impression that the woman gave would be a ’vixen’. She is beautiful, s.e.xy, seductive. That doesn’t mean that her character would be bad. It’s just that her beautiful face, voluptuous figure. Her proud chest gave everyone that impression. They just cannot help to look at her more and get attracted to her. But none of them could be seen in Sam’s eyes. He currently very displeased by her behaviour. At this time the young woman spoke in an extremely cold tone.
"I don’t know where you came from. But you better get lost before I kick you out." She said with an extremely cold tone. Philip and rest were about to convince Sam but stopped as he gestured them.
"I will say again. I have an Acolyte mage cultivation and the fire attribute. Now, I want to take an examination to become an Artisan. On what grounds are you going to throw me out of here." Sam said in an equally cold tone. Hearing this she finally lost her cool.
"Fine you want to take the Examination. I will let you take that. You will have to pay 10000 spirit stones to participate. Then we will talk." She said in anger.
"Why should I pay 10000? Isn’t it 1000 stones?" Sam asked in same cold voice. He is being increasingly frustrated.
"Because I said so." She said as if she is only natural but with the same high pitch voice. Sam turned and looked the surroundings. Right now, there are a lot of people surrounding them. Even there are some people with the artisan tower uniform. They seemed to be elders of the tower. But they are not interfering with the commotion. Seeing this Sam got even more frustrated. But he really didn’t lose his cool but gave a devilish smile. Seeing this smile Philip and gang felt a bit cold. They looked at the receptionist with pity.
"Okay I will pay. Better I will pay a total of 18000 thousand stones. But in return I don’t want my amount in return. Instead, I need a total of 5 times the original amount. Deal?" Actually, there is a rule that every candidate should pay and will only get the money back if he passed. It is to stop them from wasting the guild’s time.
Hearing this all the spectators were dumbstruck. They let out a cold breath. They really want to see how big these balls are.
"Young man, don’t be excessive." Now an elder intervened. Knowing that the matter is getting out of hand, he cannot be just standing there. Sam didn’t even bother to look at the elder. He just looked at the woman coldly with that devilishly handsome wicked smile.
Seeing his confident yet wicked smile, the woman felt a sense of danger. But when she saw the surrounding people looking at her for reply, she felt that she would lose a lot of face. So, she agreed.
"Deal." She then spread her hand towards Sam, asking him to pay up first. But Sam didn’t say anything and looked through the crowd as if he were searching for someone. Then the receptionist asked with a sneer. "What chickening out now?" She said with a provocative sneer.
"I don’t trust you." Sam said with same calm and cold face. Everyone looked at the handsome man with a shocked gaze. ’This guy really knew how anger people to death.’ Philip and gang thought as they looked at the receptionist. Just as the receptionist is about to lose her cool again. A tranquil voice came from back of the crowd. A middle-aged man came forward as crowd made way to him. Every employ bowed with respect. "I can be the middle man." The middle-aged man said. He is in robes belonged to the Artisan tower. From the respect of others, he seemed to be in quite a high position.
"Who are you?" Sam asked with same cold voice. Every elder looked at Sam with fierce expression.
"Young man, don’t you know how to respect the elders?" The elder who interrupted Sam earlier spoke. Again, Sam didn’t even bother and looked straight at the middle-aged man. Respect, he lost all the respect to these people when they just stood and watched the show. He came here with proper etiquette and procedure to take the examination, but he couldn’t help being disappointed.
"I am the head of the tower." The middle-aged man said with the same tranquil voice. He didn’t seem to be bothered by what Sam did. Everyone on the spot felt their legs going weak. ’This young man is done for.’ Everyone thought. Even Philip and gang felt quite anxious. But Sam didn’t even say anything and threw a leather bag to the middle-aged man and the person checked the bag and nodded. Then he turned to Sam and said to him. "This way please." As he spoke, he walked upstairs. Sam and the receptionist followed. Then the rest of the crowd followed as well. Leonard is also among them, he seemed to be enjoying it quite well. He also has same thought. "This country bumpkin is done for." He muttered as he followed.
Upstairs Sam, the tower head and the receptionist along with the crowd all stood before the room. The room is filled with all types of things like a bellow, pits, anvil, hammers, quenching tanks, etc. Everything a weapon maker need is there. The tower head started explaining. This is the examination room. "You need to bring your own materials, if you want you can buy from the tower. After finishing the product, you should take it to that platform. If it is passed, the standards, the tower spirit will give the rank of the weapon which is also your Artisan rank. If your weapon is innovative and new design you have to place your hand on the platform and use your spirit sense to show how you will use it. Then you may also get a Scholar artisan rank." The tower head explained.
Then he pointed at the wall and said. "That screen shows what you are doing to the higher ups from the guild. If they find any mistakes or malpractices are there, they can reject you." Sam nodded.
"Why waste your breath on him? He isn’t going to pass anyway?" the receptionist sneered from the side. Sam didn’t even take a look at her and walked inside the room. The room has glass walls for others to see from outside.
"Time limit is half a day." The tower head said from behind. Sam nodded and entered the room. He touched and examined every tool.
"Did Sam really know Weapon smithy?" Freya asked Philip.
"I don’t know." He replied.
Did Sam really study to be an artisan? That is an obvious no. Sam didn’t know about anything related to weapon smithy in this world. But that didn’t mean that he is completely oblivious to manufacturing. He dabbled almost in all kinds of engineering in his previous life.
After examining all the tools, Sam started looking through the moulds in the room. There are various moulds of basic structures of weapons. Generally, an Artisan will use the mould to get the basic structure and then proceed with the forging. They all are waiting to see what type of weapon Sam will forge.
But out of their expectations Sam didn’t even take a second look at the moulds and took somethings out of his spatial ring which made them dumbfounded. Sam went to the work table and took out a long paper scroll from the spatial ring and spread it over the table. There are various fine geometrical figures on the scroll. Sam looked at them once and walked towards the quenching tank. There Sam sat cross legged as he took a large heap of sand. The sand may look like some mud. But it is actually fine. It just looked like some ordinary soil, Sam took water from the tank and started pouring it over the sand and started mixing it. Sam brought the soil from the river bank.
Seeing his weird actions everyone broke out in discussions.
"What is he doing?"
"Did he lose his mind?"
"What is that soil for?"
"Is he going to make things out of mud.
"Acting Mysterious" The young receptionist scoffed but the tower head stayed silent all the time.
Sam didn’t hear any of these comments. He just quietly mixed the soil. After he felt satisfied with the soil. He took out four wooden planks and some nails and started making a rectangular frame. When the frame is completed, Sam placed it on the soft floor and took out a fine sand out and started spreading it evenly on the floor. He then took out another set of weird things from the spatial ring. There are some wooden carvings.
Then Sam placed the wooden carvings on the work table and picked up a wooden mallet from the tools. Then he went back to the wooden frame with a wooden carving and placed it inside the frame, then he poured the wet soil and started ramming it with the mallet. He filled and rammed until the wooden frame is fully packed firmly. Then he inverted frame along with the packed sand. The sand didn’t fall at all. Then he carefully took out the wooden carving and left packed sand with the cavity.
Sam is performing the good old casting operation using the green sand moulding technique. Just now he used wet soil and the wooden carving which is technically called as a pattern to create a sand mould to pour the molten metal. Generally, there will be another extra mould above the one he just created with an opening to pour the metal, to prevent the impurities from mixing along with the molten metal and to ensure that the metal is poured properly.
But Sam didn’t feel like there is a need to it. Because the room is surrounded by a formation to avoid impurities and as for control Sam has trust in his dexterity to control it. Then Sam started to make moulds in same way with all the other patterns. The room is soon filled with seven moulds. Out of them six have moulds of single component. The seventh one has many smaller components. Then Sam came to the table and checked the scroll. After he checked the sketch properly Sam took a few steps back.
Looking at Sam’s weird actions, the crowd already started getting used to it. Now only the receptionist is making comments.
"Acting all high and mighty and only playing with mud. Those spirit stones are good as mine."
Just as she was about to continue. The tower head shot a glare. The tower head is not like rest of people. He is one of the most knowledgeable people here. So, he understood that the young man is definitely not playing with mud.
Mean while Sam took out something which everyone thought would be another weird thing but went against their expectations. There is a gold metallic skeleton that looked like a skeleton of a tiger. Everyone was shocked and looked at in awe.
"Golden Blood tiger." This time the silent tower head also seemed a bit shocked. He is also thinking what sort of material that young man will be using, but never would he have expected that he would use a material that would even stump the rank 2 artisans like him.
Everyone broke into discussions as soon as they heard the name.
"Damn, where did he find a whole skeleton of the Golden blood tiger?"
"He seems to have some background. Otherwise it is impossible to get the skeleton with his own strength."
Then under the astounding gazes of everyone, Sam went to the large tiger skeleton and removed the claws and kept them in the storage. Then he removed the front leg bone of the skeleton and held it with both his hands over the large cauldron and kept it.
Sam closed his eyes and observed the metallic bone structure and slowly started analysing the grain distribution of the bone. Then everyone saw Sam sweating profusely as he kept on concentrating.
"Still acting. Humph. Does he really think that Golden Blood tiger bones are that easy to handle? This is ridiculous even to watch. He doesn’t even know the basics and still want to become an Artisan." The reception is still scoffing. Everyone also nodded in agreement except few people. There are none other than Philip and gang and the tower head.
Philip and others because they saw how Sam made the bone into powder before and Tower head because of his intuition.
Yes, Intuition because he felt Sam’s seriousness and confidence.