12 Start of the Competition

Wu Tian spent the next 2 in-game months training. Job mastery has different levels of experience which are a beginner, apprentice, master, grandmaster, and legend. Khan is a grandmaster and in 2 months Wu Tian also reached grandmaster in blacksmithing. During the time he wasn't blacksmithing he also was practicing the skills and leveling up, he reached Qi Condensation Stage 1, LV4 for the Heavenly Dragon Soul 89 Forms, reached LV10 for both lateral kick and uppercut punch, and then reached LV2 for the Volta Wind Wing Technique.

Khan looked at Wu Tian like he is a monster "Kid, it has taken me my entire life to reach the grandmaster level but you have done it before 2 months were over. Your equipment is also consistently epic and sometimes you get legendary weapons as well, even though we are the same rank in terms of level mastery... I usually get rares, sometimes epics, and barely make legendaries."

Wu Tian blushed at the praise and rubbed the back of his head while saying "It is only due to your teachings." During this time Wu Tian got 500 gold coins, 1000 silver coins, and 3000 bronze coins. Legendary and Epic weapons are incredibly rare and barely anyone has the ability to make weapons his weapons were in high demand and sell at very high prices. Many guilds tried to find this mysterious blacksmith but could never find him since he never put his name on the weapons.

But in the end, Wu Tian was telling the truth, since if you selected manual mode you had to everything manually including blacksmithing and you need a teacher to teach the skills personally. Usually, players in automatic mode would get a marker of where to hit the hammer and at what time so there wasn't any skill needed, but in manual mode, you had to learn it yourself but the reward is a 75% chance of raising the level by one. It is an insane incentive for people to go manual but the difficulty was too high for normal people, but Wu Tian wasn't just a normal person and was a generally fast learner and Khan was already a top-tier grandmaster blacksmith so he had a lot of tips and secrets to teach Wu Tian.

The 2 months were over and there was 1 more hour till the competition starts, Wu Tian finished practicing forging a sword for the last time before the competition, Khan had a face of glee as he walked up to Wu Tian "Disciple, you are the best blacksmith this place has ever seen. This building has been in my family for generations. Today we will win this blacksmith competition and show those people that we don't bow down just because they think we are weak. Now due to your skill and humble attitude, I will give you the 2 treasures of my family, but you must win the competition! The treasures are the Divine Dragon Anvil and the Divine Dragon Furnace!"

Wu Tian smiled, being able to stand proud when the going gets tough is part of the spirit of a martial artist, but Wu Tian was shocked at the second part of his speech,

the mission changed:

New reward added: due to you reaching Grandmaster level in 2 months Khan has decided to gift you the 2 Divine Dragon Forging items but if you fail the mission you will lose all mastery in jobs permanently and all NPC's affinity will go down by 60%.

Saw that they were actually a portable anvil and portable furnace which is exactly what he needed.

Wu Tian and Khan walked to stage where the competition was taking place. Wu Tian found where their furnace and anvil was and started cleaning the area to make sure there were no impurities, Khan also helped clean out the station before moving into the area where the city lord and other blacksmiths were sitting. Wu Tian sat down to clear his mind when he heard a voice behind him "Hey kid I will pay you 5 gold coins if you leave the competition."

The crowds started booing at this cheater that was trying to bribe in front of everyone. Wu Tian turned around to see a player wearing golden colored clothing and a badge "Heaven Breaking Guild". Wu Tian remembered seeing the guild ranking list for the game and the Heaven Breaking Guild was at 15th place.

Wu Tian now knew who the people who trashed Khan's smithy is. Wu Tian's eyes became cold as he stood up and walked over to the player. The player who didn't expect to see someone who seems to be a noob actually have bad intentions "Stop right there do you know who I am, I am the younger brother of the Heaven Breaking Guild, Young Blood, and my older brother is Blood Demon. You do not want to harm me."

Wu Tian stopped and asked with a cold tone "Why did you trash Khan's smithy and break his arm?"

Young Blood looked at Wu Tian weirdly before saying "You care for the NPC's, the reason we did that is that our guild plans to take over the blacksmith area of this game starting with Twilight Town. We have taken control of ever every smithy in town except Khan's. That old bastard actually slapped our men when they asked for Khan to join our guild so they broke that arm and trashed the place. It seems you don't want the gold so I am telling you now if you participate you will lose and when you leave this town don't expect to live. We have a master level blacksmith and since the grandmaster blacksmith Khan is disabled you will lose."

Wu Tian felt the killing intent from Young Blood and had to restrain himself from attacking. In this game, if you kill anything other than beasts in town you will get the aggro of all the guards and no NPC will even come in contact with you for 24 hours. But if you leave town and kill anyone although you will be hated by NPC's and guards will be more cautious around you they will not attack you without reason and this only lasts 1 hour. Another thing is they didn't know he was a grandmaster blacksmith so if he beats them here it would delay their plans of taking over blacksmiths it would be worse than killing them.

Wu Tian saw a referee come on the stage, he made sure there was no cheating by checking the furnces, anvils and tools to see if anything tampered. After checking he walked out to the front to announce "We will be starting the Blacksmith Competition on the right we have a returning champion, the Khan Smithy and on the left, we have a Subsidiary Smithy of the Heaven Breaking Guild. Today's weapon is a battle ax, the template and way it is to be made are on the table... you have 3 hours, 3...2...1... BEGIN!"

Wu Tian looked at the blueprint and memorized it. He then started making a cast for the weapon and on the side, he started making a handle. Wu Tian realized that his opponent was a swordsman and took the job as a blacksmith, and it was impressive that he reached master level, but the problem was Wu Tian could tell that his opponent was an automatic user meaning he was no challenge for Wu Tian. Similarly, Young Blood to the side noticed the way Wu Tian was forging the weapon and his voice whispered a little whispered "Manual Mode?" Any player who uses manual mode is an expert and especially seeing this kid was skillfully crafting the weapon shows that he is a true expert.