Chapter 181: Crafting II

Rufus noticed that about 30 or so trainees have returned to their designated working table to make their Magic Item...

There were several things on this table aside from their materials...

These things were devices that are readily provided to help them in the creation of their magic item.

An Arcane Forging Box, Spiritual Energy Stabilization Array, and the Energy Gathering Array.

All of these three have their own functions to allow them to create not just a normal Magic Item but one that can be considered as a Top-Grade.

The forging box is the main device used in creating Magic Items, the two arrays, on the other hand, were supplementary devices to ensure the quality of the item that is being made.

'All of them are in good condition... The materials are also in perfect shape... I just have to be careful and use all the time allotted without hurrying.'

The two hours given to them is already quite a long duration considering that they're not here to create a powerful item, so everyone should have a second or third chance even if they made a failure...

Rufus closed his eyes momentarily as he imagined his whole plan...

From the creation process to its finished product, he visualized the item that he wanted to create...

During this time, he has already forgotten about the trainees around, the supervising Arcanists, the red-robed Arcanists, and even his Master...

The only thing in his mind now was his Magic Item...

As soon as he opened his eyes, he began activating the devices in front of him to start his forging process.

The forging box appears to be a metallic object that emits a cool aura after being activated. The two arrays, on the other hand, added heat to the surroundings which created some glows of red in the forging box…

If one would look at the 18 items that he placed on his table, they would notice that he just actually took 2 of each item. 

In short, he only has 9 unique materials from the 80 materials that were given to them as an option.

Clank!

He first grabbed a flattened and square-shaped piece of wood... 

The wood came from a Cypress Ghost Tree, which is a common item that can be used in almost any woodcraft… 

There was nothing special about this aside from its gentle nature. Anyone who would take such an item would normally use it to craft some handle or something similar… 

Perhaps it would even be a perfect placeholder for the fragile and sensitive memory crystal.

After placing the plank on the forging box, he added other items that have unique energy from it… Anyone can easily recognize that they were items extracted from Imps and other Evil Beasts that were quite impressive in Arcane Magic that are related to illusions…

As soon as he placed the 6th supplementary ingredient, Rufus focused intently as he needed to create the Arcane Structure of the Magic that he needed to place in his Item…

This is the longest part in the forging process and depending on the skills of the Arcanists, this Structuring would normally take 15 mins to even half a day depending on the level of the Arcane Magic they wanted to place.

That's right, unlike Hemil or the other normal blacksmiths, who would rely on the special materials to create a simple magic enhancement on their weapons, the Arcanists have the capability to control the structure of the Arcane Magic they desired as long as they have a clear understanding of it…

Rufus concentrated and even though he was considered to be in the top 5 in Magic Item Forging, there can still be a chance that he'll make a mistake… So he didn't dare to rush and just slowly completed his task…

"Whew~"

After about 25 minutes of completing the Arcane Structure, Rufus took a 3 minutes break before he continued his forging process.

He put aside the plank of wood that has already changed its color and now looked like a metallic object… 

No one from the crowd knows what he was trying to create so they just ignore him for now and watched the others that are creating something spectacular in their eyes…

Apparently, Rufus repeated the same process for the six other similar items that he has… He created the same object after another half an hour…

Only an hour was left but Rufus's Magic Item was still a question to everyone watching him.

The others already have their items into shape and only a bit of fine-tuning was needed before they will be ready to present them to the judges.

Rufus still has three pairs of items with him that he hasn't used yet...

They are the pair of Memory Crystals, Laguna Mirrors, and lastly, the eyes of a Vokaril, a type of demonic creature that is higher than Imp in terms of ranks.

Rufus's Magic Items emanates a strange aura as he used quite a lot of unusual materials that normally invite negative energy…

Luckily, the wood from the Cypress Ghost Tree is doing its job in maintaining the harmony of energies that were gathered together. Aside from that, the Laguna Mirror that may be added later on would surely eliminate this negative energy…

Rufus then focused on the first item he made and grabbed one Memory Crystal before placing it at the center of the processed wood plank… 

'Huuu~~' 

Rufus sighed in relief after seeing that there was no problem after placing the crystal… He then placed the eye of Vokaril above the crystal in another space created for it…

Finally, the last two items were covered by the Laguna Mirror…

Surprisingly, the metallic wood started moving as if it has grown roots! 

All the last three items were firmly held by the small black roots that just suddenly appeared… 

This feels like a cursed item if one looked at it… As expected of someone who was always getting into trouble due to his creations, he created another one that is seemingly prohibited in the year's Evaluation nonetheless!

Rufus did the same thing on the other items… He now has two of these weird objects with unknown function…

It will be very hard to guess its purpose since there was no such item like this before… 

At the very least, they know that it has a Memory Crystal so it must be something related to helping them recall something or maybe an object that will help investigators within the crime scene… No one can be sure…

Only Rufus, who did all of this knows the purpose of this item…

'I really did it… Kukuku… My confidence has really improved after meeting master Reiji… I wouldn't attempt to create such a thing in this evaluation if I failed the last two Evaluations…'

Apparently, passing the first evaluations boosted his confidence in creating such a risky Magic Item… 

***

"Kael… You're good with Magic Items… Do you know what Lexi is doing?"

Sven asked after seeing that the young girl put the memory crystal inside a weirdly shaped box…

The crystal can normally be used to record a short moment around the crystal. Once the crystal managed to record, one just has to connect with it with their Spiritual Energy to capture it with their eyes.

Another usage was to place information or a form of knowledge inside it but it was quite complicated and even though the two second-class Arcanists can do it, they'd rather not to… 

The crystal was too fragile and it might take fifty or even a hundred tries before being successful… It's terrible and they will not be productive… They'd rather teach or write this knowledge instead of saving it in the crystal.

"Not really… I think that it's just something similar to recording events… but those special plates bother me… I can't understand what she's planning to do with that…"

"I see… How about Rufus's Magic Item? You guys behind me… Do you have a guess?"

Sven is referring to the red-robed Arcanists around them that is watching the whole event…

Because there's a lot of trainees being observed, they only saw a few moments of Rufus's forging process… However, they can remember the items he took with him…

After looking at Rufus's finished Magic Item, many of them frowned as it was quite weird… The others have made a veil, a bag, an accessory, a musical instrument, a folding fan, a carriage wheel, a comfortable chair, and other objects that can be understood…

However, Rufus made another weird item. They somehow recalled that dreadful Poison Cloud Generator that almost suffocated everyone to death within the Tower…

"…"

"I'm sorry, Sir Sven… We don't have an idea… However, he created a pair of them… Perhaps one of them is spare and the other is the one he'll present to us… But it might also be an item that requires two people to operate… I'm not sure."

"Ho~ A magic item that requires two people to operate? You think too highly of him, huh? That's already an Advanced Level Forging Process…"

"W-well… We can't really say that he's a beginner in this with all his experience we heard about…"

"You may be right… Alright… Let's go and see what they've made this time…"

Kael finally said as the allotted two hours were finally over.