Today starts the Great Hammer Tournament where Anton will participate to maintain his male integrity, we will all watch the tournament to cheer for him, so we arrived 1 hour early to be able to sit at the front.
The Great Hammer Tournament is above weaving in the Adventurers Guild training ground, this training ground was large and had more than enough audience seats for this type of event, it must have been prepared with this sort of thing in mind, it even has a venue in the audience prepared just for Nobles where the seats have a chic look and more space from one to the other.
As we arrived early we were able to choose seats in the front rows and away from the Nobles, with my horrible luck I want to keep myself as far away from problems as possible, it’s enough to have met Margareth yesterday and not know who she was or why she was there.
When everyone was seated I ask Diana and Irius to use their Auras to keep people away if any stranger decides to approach with bad intentions.
“Lilian, how does this tournament work? Do you know anything?” (I)
“I’ve never watched it, but as far as I know the tournament is divided into two parts which are the preliminaries to eliminate those who are not qualified and the real tournament where everyone competes at the same time.” (Lilian)
“What should a competition be like where people don’t have to hit or kill each other?” (Hela) .𝘤𝘰𝑚
“I’ve heard of competitions like this, they’re a great way for unsupported people to showcase their talents and attract customers.” (Lilith)
“A sufficiently talented but nameless person can achieve overnight fame with this type of event.” (Lilith)
“I think it’s good that this Dwarf shows everyone on this continent that my husband is the best Blacksmith, why not…” (Tania)
“You’re quite right about that, look at the number of Nobles who are waiting for the number of seats.” (I)
“Nobles and merchants from big companies come to watch this kind of tournament, it helps them to be able to hire people of great capacity.” (Lilian)
“I’ve never seen Anton at work, but I know his works are excellent as we all use the weapons he creates, but I wonder how he will compare to the best on this continent.” (I)
———–
After an hour the place was already full of people, there were so many people that some who had the ability to fly stayed flying over the arena to be able to see, the Noble seats were empty for a whole time, but when a Demon full of muscled, bald, with silver horns, golden eyes and red skin he climbed up to the great arena, the nobles appeared and took their places as if there was some order as to where everyone could sit.
The Demon in the arena waited for the Nobles to take their places before starting the tournament, he took a rectangular shaped crystal that was caught and floating near him, he could feel the wind element mana in that crystal, and he also felt a non-elemental magic connecting the Demon to the crystal.
“Welcome to the annual Great Hammer Tournament of the City of Stars, my name is Borges and I will be in charge of this Tournament.” (Borges)
“I don’t like doing useless things like prolonging a simple thing too long, so let in those Blacksmiths who dare to participate in a competition of this level.” (Borges)
Soon many people started to enter the arena, Anton was among them, it seems that most of the competitors are Dwarves, but there are also many Demons and some Demi like Ogres, Orcs, and Minotaurs.
They all stand in front of Borges forming lines, there must have been more than 200 people participating, Borges looks at everyone with some irritation before speaking, he doesn’t speak loudly, but his voice can somehow be heard as if we were close to him, but this must be because of the crystal floating near him.
“Now I will announce the rules of the preliminaries.” (Borges)
“The preliminaries are divided into two stages that deal with the observation ability that every Blacksmith must have, because of that it is not allowed to use any item, magic, skill, or technique of any kind, you must use your experience and analyze what is placed in front of you to show that it is worth letting participate in this competition.” (Borges)
“I’ll be blunt, more than half of you can’t even get past the first stage of foreplay.” (Borges)
“The preliminaries are just tests of the basics you need to know to be qualified, so if you’re not good enough and you don’t have the guts, get out of here now so you don’t waste my time.” (Borges)
The person in charge of this tournament is someone very rude and direct, he would get along well with Anton, people probably wouldn’t like someone like that, but this type of person is an excellent friend because they don’t lie, they are direct people who speak their minds without fearing anything.
He waits for a few seconds while spreading a powerful pressure from his Aura to all the participants until about 14 fell to their knees and 1 passed out, besides these the others managed to keep up well, Anton and a few others didn’t even care about it.
“Someone come here and pick up these useless ones.” (Borges)
With Borges’ words some people enter the arena and carry these 15 people out, one of them even started shouting that it was unfair to disqualify him without even showing his real skills.
“If you don’t even have the courage to withstand a little pressure, then you don’t even have the right to participate in the preliminaries, a Blacksmith must have courage running through his veins.” (Borges)
“The first step of the preliminaries will be for you to analyze a metal bar and tell the types of metals that were used to create it.” (Borges)
With Borges’ words, a magician removed more than two hundred tables that were floating in front of each participant, there were 5 closed boxes on top of each table and a reading crystal.
“Inside these boxes will have the same metal alloys for everyone, you must observe and analyze these metal bars and mark the types of metals they are made of in the reading crystal, do not try to cheat because there are many eyes on you.” (Borges)
“When I give the start signal you will have 15 minutes to finish figuring out what these metal bars are made of or you will be disqualified.” (Borges)
Borges’ words make many of the contestants nervous, I can see that just by their expressions, but there were a few dozen who were very calm, Anton was one of those who was calm.
“I declare the start of the Great Hammer Tournament preliminaries!” (Borges)
“Now begin!” (Borges)
Finally, the tournament officially started.