Mined Games chapter 14

Three weeks. It took me three. Weeks. A hundred plus gold per day sounded like a lot, but it really wasn’t. The condenser pushed one percent of the mana in a mana stone or crystal into me, which, while much more wasteful than regular condensation formuli when it came to the crystals, was also much faster.

But with speed comes cost. The more stones I used, the more I needed, and once I got through stones and passed the fifth circle, I had to burn my stockpile of crystals. I also ran into Barew six more times, the little guy apparently deciding to come visit more often, and had picked up six more stones, only one or two of which were emeralds.

After weeks of condensing, mining, and training my smithing, I’d FINALLY managed to get to Apprentice rank. Barely. The timing was perfect too, because the Blacksmithing Guild’s test was today, and it was literally my only option for moving forward.

While books had been able to teach me plenty about Acolyte training, there was an actual school for being a blacksmith at the guild, if you could learn the process from books there would be no need for people to be so selective with who got in.

They also had spells there, actual magic I could learn. For a normal mage that would have been less of a problem, but in order to effectively utilize my mana to its fullest, I would need to learn spatial magic, and Apprentice level space spells were damned near impossible to find anywhere but the mage’s tower and blacksmith’s guild, especially out here on the border.

Which was why I had prepared, doing my best to put the skills I’d mastered over the time leading up to the testing to work, and make myself something to bring with me that would make an actual difference.

Not that I could make magic tools yet. While the magic forge could and did help me improve with the tutorial, I had realized early on that I was trying to do too much at once. Hitting the perfect spot with the perfect timing at the perfect speed and angle was too many variables, and it was massively slowing me down.

The guild would teach me about hammering, and I would need to learn to push magic into the materials from scratch anyway, so I’d decided to leave that to learn later, and focus entirely on mastering Form to the utmost degree.

Without hammering I wasn’t able to resonate the mana, which affected the outcome, of course, but I could make a perfect knife at this point, and had moved on to a few other items to increase my range.

Amusingly, giving up on hammering had made it easier, because once I’d managed to basically master Form (a few weeks wasn’t enough to become an actual master, obviously, I was just extremely skilled, my Form rating was up to about eighty percent) it became second nature and I was able to really focus on hammering in the time I had left.

Which meant the Form of all the gear I’d made myself was B-rank, even if the actual mana saturation wasn’t even F-rank. Theoretically this made it possible for me to more finely control mana in spells when I used them as foci, but since I didn’t know any spells, in practice it just made them sturdier and harder to damage.

I had two knives, a breastplate, and a pair of greaves on me. None of them were saturated enough to become magic tools, obviously, and sadly none were space mana items because of the rarity of those crystals. They were just armor that was harder than most, and a pair of sharp daggers with a keen edge.

I’d considered using the gems, but I couldn’t bring myself to waste the things on anything that wasn’t a magic item given how rare and amazing they were. I looked around my room, confirming that I hadn’t forgotten anything, checked my inventory to make sure I had food and supplies, and then set off for the testing ground.

I felt…odd, heading for something like this. I was a nobody, worse than a nobody really, people took pleasure in tormenting me, and some of the more important or higher ranked people my age seemed to actively hate me for what seemed like no reason. Not just disdain me because I was weak, but legitimately despise me, though the ones who gave that impression never interacted with me, just…sort of glared.

Now though, I was an Apprentice. I was a REAL mage. I had an amazing mana type, and I was carrying fifty gold on me, even after potions and supplies. Riley had long since become used to my absurd financial reserves, and getting my hands on useful items for this test, or just for the world in general wasn’t hard. I was as prepared as I could be, but I was worried about how people would take this.

Ranking up fast was rare, but it happened. I’d already done some research and decided to claim I fell into a naturally occurring pool of mana water. It happened very rarely, and my progress would be slowing down immensely at Apprentice, given the changes to the condensation process once you reached Apprentice and had solid crystal within you.

But that still left the human element. Would people be able to change their perceptions of me? I went from being weak as a kitten to being a genuine Apprentice, easily in the top ten percent of people under twenty five in the whole city. I wasn’t just normal, I was BETTER than them now.

I gripped my knives where they sat at my hips. I would be safe enough. Apprentices were extremely durable, it came from having crystallized the body. It was living crystal, but still crystal, and mana crystal was a durable substance. Much more so than flesh. I basically spent the twenty minute walk to the plaza where the test was being held spiraling, but once the testing tent came into view, I calmed down, forcing myself to breathe.

There were less people than I would have thought. Maybe fifteen here to take the test, as opposed to the dozens or hundreds a mage’s tower intake would have. These were held far more often though, maybe this was a slow month. Or maybe it added up.

The red velvet tent was accented with gold, looking luxurious and impressive, and the front flap was firmly closed, so everyone was waiting outside.I had my mana touched cloak on, and my hood up, because I didn’t feel like getting confronted about my strength too early, and I took a position at the back of the crowd, looking around to see if I recognized anyone.

I did. Several someone’s. First up was, Terrance Halford, a thick built blonde guy with small, dark eyes and a broad, brutal looking face. He had short blonde hair that made his head look even larger than it was, and a permanent scowl. Terrance was an unpleasant and vindictive sort, and always took the time to harass me. I wasn’t really surprised to see him. He was nowhere near smart enough to be a spell caster, but was burly and came from a good clan, so blacksmith was a reasonable career path.

Second was Cecily Ardane. Rala’s cousin, and basically her polar opposite. Where Rala was tall and athletic and tan, Cecily was short and pale and curvy. Her hair was red instead of blonde, and she mostly kept to herself. She had the same pretty, delicate features, and the shocking green eyes the Ardane family was famous for.

Annika Wrent was the third person I recognized. Pretty, with dark skin and a wide smile, Annika was a friendly person, one of the few people who weren’t cruel or hostile to me. We weren’t friends or anything, but Annika treated most people well, and I wasn’t the exception. I hoped she got in, she was a sweet person, and training with her would be much nicer than training with Terry the Terror, as most people called Terrence.

Duval Kent was there, which was a shock because I had expected the thin, tanned man to go for the mage’s tower. Duval was a noted talent in the city. He was about twenty three, almost four years older than I was, but he’d long since reached Apprentice, and would have been a lock for the tower if he felt like applying.

The bored expression on his face made it clear that he wasn’t worried about his entry, and his brown eyes scanned the plaza lazily through shaggy black hair as he took in the competition. Most of whom were nobodies, but among the fifteen (not counting me) people waiting, there was one more person here, and I was floored to see her.

Grace DuClay, daughter of Alan DuClay, the Baron of Edgebank. Not just a noble, but someone from the ruling family of the whole city. Grace wasn’t exactly someone who walked in my circles, but she was hard to miss. Tall with long curly black hair and icy blue eyes, Grace gave a supreme impression of confidence and competence. Like she could do anything. I’d have sworn she was a shoe in for the tower even without applying, seeing her here was mindboggling.

Before I could gape any more at the others, the flap opened, and a short, well muscled woman stepped out. Tanned, with dark hair pulled back into a tight braid, she had a long scar across one cheek, and freckles spattered across her cheeks, drawing attention to her amber eyes. She frowned when she was us all. “Fifteen?”

Her voice was husky, and almost a little rough. Like she didn’t use it much, but I could hear the annoyance dripping from her words. A slight man with shaggy red hair and the Ardane eyes stepped out next to her with an easy smile, shooting a wink at Cecily who rolled her eyes before shrugging. “It’s fine. We already have a decent crop this year. We always get smaller application classes so close to the tower recruitment.”

The woman sneered, spitting on the ground. “Useless bookworms. It’s not like we don’t have casters. Not sure why they think they’re so damned special. I saw that wink by the way, Riley. Do I need to remind you that all guild tests are impartial?” Her eyes narrowed as they cut to the side to glare at the redhead.

He put up both hands defensively, giving an offended look. “Tanya! I am appalled that you would make such an accusation. Just because my precious baby sister is going to be taking the test, doesn’t mean I would ever compromise the sanctity of our hallowed institution by compromising the impartiality of our most sacred assessment.”

The woman snagged a hammer from literally nowhere, presumably a spatial artifact of some kind, and leveled it at the excitable man. “Quit your political blathering Riley. I’ll be watching, and if you so much as breathe too lightly when talking to her compared to the others, I’ll have your balls on my anvil, possibly while still attached.”

I was gratified not to be the only guy in the plaza who winced when she said that, because we all flinched a bit, especially Riley, who got even paler, but swallowed an nodded quickly to show he understood.

Tanya turned to us. “Now. Your test here is simple. Being a blacksmith isn’t about magic use, we teach that later. It’s about making things. You can pass this test as an Acolyte, or fail as an Apprentice. All we want is for you to make something. We won’t tell you what, or how, but you WILL be graded on what you create, though we aren’t going to tell you by what standard.”

Stepping back, she gestured us into the tent. “Anyone who can handle all that head inside, you’ll be taking turns to work, and we’ll be supplying materials and tools to work with. You won’t have any excuses if you fail.” With that, she turned and strolled back into the tent, clearly expecting us to follow. The knot in my gut unwound. I wasn’t great at a lot of things, but smithing non magical items was something I could do in my sleep. I was going to blow them away.