Chapter 222 - 216 : Test

"Welcome. How may I help you?" The receptionist on the duty asked.

'It's not Amelia. She's probably off her shift.' Sato thought as he glanced at the unfamiliar face behind the counter. The 'new' receptionist was still a female but unlike the blonde and young Amelia, she had brown hair and looked to be a bit older; probably in her late 20s or early 30s. While she wasn't as pretty as Amelia, the brown-haired lady had her own beauty that was both as a result of her seeming matured personality and her older age. On her name tag were the words 'Sienna'.

"I would like to take my official blacksmith test." 

"Oh." The brown-haired Sienna was a bit a surprised. 

"It's a bit too late to apply as a blacksmith as most of the official ones are either off-duty or busy with their work."

"I think you're misunderstanding me." Sato said. He then took out the circular token Amelia had given him before, dropping it on the counter.

"I'm already registered as an apprentice. I just want to take the official test."

"Ah? My apologies for the misunderstanding." Sienna bowed. As a receptionist, her rank in the guild was lower than apprentice blacksmiths. Having inadvertently mistook Sato as a guy that was about to register in the Blacksmith guild and not a registered figure, Sienna had to apologize least the individual gets angry. After all, it wasn't so difficult to find a replacement for the receptionist role.

"No problem."

"Your token for confirmation please. It's guild policies."

"Here." Sato brought out a coin shaped token that was roughly the size of half a palm and dropped it on the counter in front.

Grabbing the token Sato had dropped atop the counter, the last placed a finger on it and focused her attention on the circular object for awhile.

"You've only been an apprentice for a week and you want to take the official test?!" Sienna abruptly widened her as she stared at Sato.

"...is it really that absurd?"

Sato couldn't get why she was overly surprised but he finally understood it after hearing her next sentence.

"Absurd?! People usually remain an apprentice for 6 months or even a year and some for 3 years. But you only did so for a week?!"

Astounded and dumbfounded, Sato didn't know what to say. Nonetheless, he didn't want to waste any more time here.

"It was at Master Owen's request."

"Master Owen...you mean Lord Owen?!" Sienna raised her voice in shock once more.

"Oh, I see. You must be one of those apprentices he gave a challenge too. But it's almost time for the challenge to be over." She stared at Sato with a weird face.

"Well, is he around?" Sato asked.

Since the mission was for him to become a Blacksmith within a week, following the logic of reality, there had to be someone present to monitor him as it was in reality. In other games, this wasn't so as the GM[1] would simply pass them once they have fulfilled the required prerequisites. Sato guessed that either the NPC, Master Owen, would oversee the test for him or someone else would.

"Not really. Lord Owen is always busy so it's quite difficult to get a hold of him lately. However, he did leave behind his instructions for you all. A blacksmith on duty could oversee your test or you could just look for the instructor in-charge of your group to do so. But of course, if your instructor is too busy then it's best to look for someone else. If everyone else is too busy, then you can only take the test at a later date."

Listening to her words, Sato thought of the blue haired beauty who also happened to be the only female blacksmith in Riverdale town.

"In that case, is Miss Trevale around?"

"Yes, she is. Should I check if she's free for you?" Sienna asked.

"Please do."

'I just hope she's free.'

Due to the fact that most subclass practitioners don't need to leave their departments or research room as often as adventurers, most of them spend their time doing research and are barely able to attend to others especially during the night time. This was even more so for official practitioners who barely offered their services since most requests were always so simple that their apprentices alone we're enough for them. In other words, the chances that Miss Trevale would be free was quite low. Going even further, the chances of any official blacksmith being free was very low. It couldn't be helped as Sato had chosen a bad time for this. The only thing he could do was to pray and hope that this wasn't so.

It didn't take a while for Miss Trevale to arrive at the entrance.

"What's up? I'm going to soon wrap up for the day so?" Miss Trevale hurriedly asked.

Sienna then explained everything to her after which Miss Trevale glanced at Sato and sized him up a bit.

"Name?" 

"Sky-blade" Sato responded her.

"Follow me." Without checking to see if Sato followed her not, Miss Trevale began heading deeper into the guild.

While the other party walked forward, Sato followed closely from behind while wondering what the test would be like. From the library at the Hall of Grey Chaplains, Sato figured out that while each subclass had the same type of test, there was more than one way of doing things with each having their own advantages and disadvantages.

The most common test method was to produce a sample live and direct. While it had the disadvantage of taking too long to finish, the examiner could easily check the progress and skill of the examinee. At the same time, they can also confirm the examinee's success rate.

Another one was to submit a sample that was recently made in a time-span of 24 hours. Using a very special equipment, the examiners would test whether the product was really made by the examinee. The advantage was the fact it didn't take as long as the first method since all that was left was to confirm that the equipment was produced by the examinee. As for the disadvantages, since the production method wasn't being monitored, the examinee's success rate couldn't be identified the same goes for their skill. Though the equipment's rank could indeed help identify one's skill it couldn't be said to be accurate. This was because sometimes, the factor of luck comes into play during production and this could affect the test results. Example, an apprentice could suddenly make a Rare-steel rank equipment when actually their proficiency level is limited to Mortal rank. If the apprentice submits the Rare-steel rank equipment, their evaluation would put them at being capable of producing such goods when in actual fact, it was just a lucky coincidence.

The third examining method was when one would take a detailed written test. This test would consist of objectives and subjectives, with the usual sentence-completion and multiple-choice questions taking the majority. It could be said to be the easiest exam yet the worst as it only tested one's theoretical knowledge and not practical knowledge. No matter how detailed the questions were, they still didn't have a way of proving one's ability. At the very least, such testing method was used to calculate one's potential in a subclass.

The fourth method, which happened to be the second most common, was to combine both a live practical and a written exam, testing both one's knowledge and ability. The disadvantage was that it took too long to make preparations and was quite stressful. However, the accuracy of the test was the highest amongst the others so most subclass guilds tend to make use of it for the transition exam[2]

"Here we are." Miss Trevale pushed open a door.

"This is..."

"Your exam would be held here. Its going to be a purely practical one which you will be doing here. All the necessary materials, equipment and blueprint are available inside." The blue haired beauty explained as she walked into the room.

Sato followed her in and began examining the entire place. The room was similar to the basic forging rooms of the guild. Just like those ones, there was also a mana gathering array, a furnace, an anvil and a work-bench. There was also the basic equipment for a blacksmith like a pair of tongs, two hammers(a normal one and a rune-engraved one), a few moulds for different weapons and a magical equipment that functioned just like a blowtorch. At the middle of the room was a 2 metres wide and 1 metre long table. The table looked to be constructed with a special kind of metal that was highly resistant to force and extremely hard, making it suitable to also work as an anvil. At the edge of the room was a bookshelf with a few scrolls, slips and books. That was the reference centre for blacksmiths in work. It made things easier for them as rather than going to the library, they could look up what they need from there, while still overseeing their work.

"The script is on the table. Normally, you'd have 9 hours to make 2 copies out of 3 chances. But seeing as you're running out of time, you have only a bit above 3 hours.. Good luck."