Headmaster Oak, Adara, and Eden went to the armory to acquire new equipment. During their journey from Elkwood Village and Border Town, the students wore their cloaks and regular clothes. It was okay according Headmaster Oak, since at the time, outside the Earth Hog incident, the troubles seen were relatively minimal. However, at the Coliseum and the future Academy Tournament they needed to be prepared. There were no restrictions to weapons and armor at the Coliseum, hence the richer participants will buy the highest quality items that were available. Wealth was a sign of power and the Coliseum heavily encouraged it.
The Crux City Armory had many furnaces roaring. The sounds of hammer hitting ore filled the entire room. A group of tailors in the back can be seen crafting leather gear, blacksmiths hammering swords.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
The trio were greeted by a frail elderly man.
"Name's Adam, I'm the head blacksmith here. How can I help you guys?"
"I'm looking to gear up my students for the Coliseum." replied Headmaster Oak.
Putting on his glasses Adam, inspected the two. He could tell at a glance what kinda of gear would suit the person the best. "Looks like they'll both benefit from wearing leather gear. Let me fetch some stuff from the back."
Eden couldn't help but notice that skill and precision that the blacksmiths near the furnace were hammering. He was mesmerized by the timing of their hammering with different amounts of force.
"You are interested in blacksmithing young man?" asked a returning Adam.
"It looks fun sir. I definitely want to learn" Eden nodded yes,
"Come by next week, I'll teach you the basics."
"Adara you should also pick up a job, maybe tailoring? The world isn't only about your fist." mentioned Headmaster Oak.
"Yes Headmaster" Adara looked away. She was really only interested in getting stronger.
"Adara, strength isn't only accumulated through fists, its about using your mind, by acquiring more talents in life, you are also strengthening your foundations" reprimanded Headmaster Oak.
"Young one, I trust that learning a skill will be worth your while. Learning the quality of materials is beneficial to an elementalist, especially when it comes to tailoring and blacksmithing, knowing the material something is made out could show you how much force to apply to it to break it." chimed in Adam. Adam handed over several pieces of leather for Adara to try on, he picked the correct sizes for them at a glance.
Adara and Eden both received leather body armor, arm guards, and leg guards. They looked at a nearby mirror and nodded in approval.
"Looks good you two. Lets see... Adara fights with her fists, and the gloves should provide enough, Eden you still have the sword that you are using from Elkwood Village, it is not a particularly good sword, you should consider purchasing a sword with the money you made in Border Town." voiced Headmaster Oak.
Eden pointed at a sword that that was hanging on the wall. It had a yellow colored aura emanating from it, and it had a very eye catching hilt that had looked with a symbol of cherry blossom on it.
"What kind of sword is that sir?"
"That sword is embedded with a rare elemental ore. The shine is from the imbuing of mana from the elementalist who owns the sword. You can store your mana in these stones to use as an energy reserve during combat. The real reason these swords are so expensive are that these swords with time, will take on the personality of the user gradually embedding a piece of their soul into the sword, some say that these weapons grow to have a mind of their own and will never allow themselves to be used by anyone else. These stones are how weapons of legends are made. This particular sword belongs to a client of mine that sent it in for maintenance. You'll be hard pressed to find one of these elemental ores though, kingdoms spend a hundreds of thousands of gold on them."
"Thank you sir for the information. I think I'll wait until I learn how to blacksmith and create my own sword."
The group bid farewell to Adam and made their way back to the inn where they split up and went their separate ways. Eden and Adara headed off to the training grounds.
The Coliseum training ground were located on the outskirts of the city. Here many were attempting to improve their skills through sparring, meditation, and exercise. The Coliseum training grounds were public grounds that were made available through those were participating fighters. However, as one progressed through rankings they would be able to access the more private areas of the training grounds.
In the back of the training grounds were several wooden beams. These were available to the bronze level competitors.
Eden closed his eyes and imagined his opponent whilst looking at a wooden beams. He then moved in a way he thought that he himself would move. SWISH! SWISH! SWISH!
This method of training was taught to him by Headmaster Oak. Imagining an opponent and visualize your victory. Eden performed this for an hour or two. While practicing he heard a loud sound!
Crash! Someone was thrown into a a litter of barrels. It was a blond haired boy with blue eyes, he wore a blue colored plate mail.
"Isaac! What a joke you are! Why are you so weak!" shouted a black haired man. "I can't believe I let such a weakling into my Academy. You can't do anything right! You put the whole team at risk simply by being in the match! Get out of my sight! From this moment on you aren't a member of Eldritch Academy any more!"
"Shut it old man! You don't need to remove me from the Academy! I'll leave on my own!" spat Issac.
"Clean your stuff out! You have one night! We don't need useless weaklings" shouted the black-haired man as he began to walk away.
"You can keep my stuff! I don't need anything! I'll show you how great I can be!"
"One more thing..." the black-haired man ripped a piece of paper and threw its remains back at Isaac.
This was the student contract that tied a person to an academy.
Isaac got up and patted himself down, he was bleeding from the head.
"What the hell am I going to do now..."