Chapter 13

Hearing Astra's score in the Alchemy tests, all the elders present there were dumbfounded. The score that Astra had scored was in some examination in the guild outside the sect then this news would have stirred chaos in the entire city, perhaps even the entire headquarter would have stirred into chaos. But they were still happy and excited at it as their sect would be getting a genius whom they could nurture.

After all these emotions and feelings ran through the elders' hearts, another elder came from among them, he was the blacksmith elder, Elder Jian. He was the next to walk to the arena.

"Young disciple Astra, I'm Elder Jian, responsible of supervising the Blacksmith Hall of the sect.

I'll be overseeing your test on blacksmithing. Before we begin the test, I would like to clarify how the test is to proceed.

The test is divided into two parts, in the first part you must appraise the materials, as it is to know that without a proper quality of material, no blacksmith can forge any decent equipment, be it armor or weapons, the quality of forged item corresponds to the quality of material used in the forging process.

Then, there is the forging test. For this test you'll be provided with materials and you'll have to forge either armor or weapons any of your liking. But remember that you'll have to forge a Normal Intermediate tier Weapon or any equipment.

Do you have any questions before we begin the test?" [Elder Jian]

"Yes, elder I'm ready for the test." [Astra]

Astra replied almost immediately as he knew that he was doing all this to make things easier of him in the sect.

Seeing Astra nod at this, the elder flicked his wrist and a metal of some kind appeared in his hand.

"With this the first part of the Blacksmith test begins. Here is the material that you have to appraise, you have to determine the constituents and characteristics of the material." [Elder Jian]

With that Astra went to the elder and received the material to appraise it and determine its characteristics.

At first look the material looked like any other ordinary iron ingot but on further inspection one could see that there were some metals and other materials mixed in it.

Astra understood that it was too difficult for him to appraise the material with the limited knowledge and no experience on blacksmithing, so he took Leilana's help in appraising the material. He one by one wrote down its constituents followed by its characteristics. After writing down every noteworthy detail, he passed the paper to the elder.

Elder Jian looked at the answer and was quite surprised to see that all the details of the material mentioned in the paper to correct, he was more shocked with his eye of discernment as he had just touched the material and stared at it for no more than 10 minutes and he wrote all the constituents and characteristics correctly without missing a single one or an incorrect one.

After some time, Elder Jian calmed himself and spoke.

"You have passed the first test, now it's time for the second test. In this test you'll have to forge a weapon or an equipment of your liking. But remember that you'll be give only an hour to complete this test. Now let's begin with the second test." [Elder Jian]

With this Elder Jian waved his hand and few guards came to the arena some carrying a table with the materials that could be used for forging and some came carrying a portable furnace and forging equipment.

The guards put the furnace and the materials on the arena and left.

After this Astra walked up to the furnace to check the furnace and the forging equipment in order to familiarize himself with them, all thanks to his craftmanship proficiency, then he walked to the table where the materials were placed and started examining them. There were all kinds of materials placed on the table, from metals to durable bones and fangs.

While he was inspecting the materials, his attention fell on a certain item. This item was a claw bone, but not any ordinary claw bone but a dragon's claw bone. He decided to use it as the core material for the weapon he would be forging. After deciding as the core material, he started pondering 'Which should I forge? I think a blade type weapon will fit it.' After some time of pondering Astra finally decided on to something 'Let's forge a dagger. I really don't have much time to forge any other weapon and among all of them a dagger seems most appropriate considering my experience and the time I have.'. deciding on to this Astra looked of something that would work as a durable material for the hilt and found a heavy metal ingot and a thick leather among the materials.

Seeing Astra pick the claw bone and a metal and leather, Elder Jian was shocked. As the claw bone was, according to him, the most worthless material among all the materials present there. He had only placed it among them so that it could be useful later in making something.

"Astra! Are you fine with choosing that claw bone? It is the most worthless material among all the materials present here. If you want, you can choose another material. There are many more here that are better that that claw bone you've got there." [Elder Jian]

Hearing Elder Jian's word, Astra was quite bewildered. He thought 'Does the elder not know what kind the claw bone it is?'. After some time, he spoke.

"Elder Jian, this claw bone is no ordinary claw bone you think of it to be. You'll know what it is once the forging is complete.

Now without wasting any time let's get started, shall we, Elder Jian?" [Astra]

Now after this Elder Jian was more bewildered, he began accessing the claw bone again, but still couldn't figure out what was the meaning behind Astra's word. After some time of pondering on it, he calmed himself saying that 'I would know what kind of material it is after he completes the forging.'

Then he said "Let's begin the second test the." [Elder Jian]

With that Astra began his forging test. He started the furnace and increased the temperature of the furnace. After 5 minutes the furnace finally reached the optimum temperature. Then, Astra put the claw bone into the furnace to soften it so that he could begin shaping it into the shape of dagger. After the shaping was complete, Astra began melting the metal ingot and covered the both sides of the shaped bone to give it sharpness and strength to the main structure of the dagger.

After all this was done, he began quenching the dagger. He quenched the dagger again and again. After quenching the dagger for around 10 times, he finally began working on the hilt of the dagger. He first molded the molten metal ingot into the hilt and attached it to the dagger then wrapped it to the hilt to mate its grip strong and increase the defense. When the forging process was nearing its end, he finally gave some final touches to the dagger and at the end of the forging, Astra added a drop of his blood on the dagger. As soon as the drop of his blood landed on the dagger, the dagger started to glow and along with the glow a heaven shattering roar was emitted from the dagger.

The roar was so loud that, the entire area within the radius of a thousand of mile of radius around the sect shook as if the heaven was mad.

Seeing this outcome with their own eyes, all the elders present were terrified as hell. After some time, the elders calmed down. The head elder went to Astra and asked him as Astra was the only one unaffected by roar.

"Astra, what just happened? Could you Explain?" [Elder Zheng]

"Um... Head Elder Zheng, that roar just now was the result of completing the forging of the weapon." [Astra]

Now the elders were more curious to know what weapon had Astra forged to result such outcome. They all walked to the completed dagger and examined it. Elder Jian took the dagger in his hand and swung it around a few times, but couldn't help be frown at it as it seemed nothing more than an ordinary dagger.

"Astra, I don't understand why you said that the outcome was because of this dagger, I don't see anything other than an ordinary dagger in my hand." [Elder Jian]

"Elder Jian might see it as an ordinary dagger because it's my personal exclusive dagger. And other than in my hands no one can see its true worth." [Astra]

Now the elders were more shocked.

Elder Jian gave the dagger to Astra to look at the real appearance of the dagger Astra had forged.

As soon as Astra took hold of the dagger, a sudden feeling of being in presence of a peerless cultivator covered them. The Elders couldn't help but look around to find that cultivator was but the head elder immediately understood from where this presence was felt and asked all the elder to look towards Astra. They all were shocked to see the sudden change in Astra's demeanor. They all couldn't help but feel that Astra was some peerless cultivator but as soon as Astra put the dagger on the table the feeling that the elders were feeling was gone.

Then elder Jian asked, "Can you execute a strike with the dagger?"

Nodding at Elder Jian's request, Astra took the Dagger in his hand and made a strike in the air. Along with the strike, the loud roar was heard again followed by the same pressurized feeling. The single strike was so powerful that a single strike in the air tore the air and loud whistle could be heard and felt even tens of meter away from the strike.

Seeing this the elders were dumbfounded.

"Astra, what's the name of this dagger of yours? And most importantly what was the material you used to make it so terrifying?" [Elder Jian]

"I've named this Dagger Black-talon. And the bone that I used as the core material was the reason why this outcome happened. The claw bone was from a dragon species. I don't know whether it was a true dragon or not, but it is of a dragon species. And if not for the drop of blood that I added during forging it wouldn't have this outcome." [Astra]

Now all the elders were dumbfounded. The bone that they all had thought to be a worthless material turned out to be a priceless material in the end.

Then Astra asked.

"Umm… Elder, do I pass the test." [Astra]

Regaining his composure, Elder Jian spoke.

"Of course, you pass. A weapon who can recognize its master and produce such outcome can be nothing less than a Spirit tier weapon. And It seems that you dagger is an upgradeable Spirit Peak tier Weapon at that." [Elder Jian]

With saying that much, Astra passed his Blacksmith Test.