Chapter 75: Rowan’s Turn

Chapter 75: Chapter 75: Rowan’s Turn

Without hesitation, Barney grabbed the heavy chunk of rusted, slag-filled pig iron and pitched it directly into the heart of his forge’s crucible.

Reaching over to the furnace controls, he slammed the mana-intake valve wide open. The underground heat pumps surged, unleashing a roaring blast of white-hot elemental flame into the hearth. Within moments, the internal temperature soared past standard forging heat, rapidly forcing the stubborn, low-grade iron all the way to its melting point.

As the pig iron turned into a bubbling, glowing pool of orange-white liquid metal, the extreme heat incinerated the surface rust and forced the dense slag impurities to float to the top. Barney caught up a long-handled skimming ladle, efficiently scraping off the floating impurities with quick, practiced flicks of his wrist.

"He’s going straight for liquid casting!" one of the nearby smiths gasped, wiping sweat from his forehead as he struggled to hand-hammer his own cold pig iron block. "With that much internal carbon, casting a blade is madness—it’ll be far too brittle!"

Ignoring the chatter, Barney grabbed a high-density sand mold from the workstation shelf, quickly locking the two halves together. He decided on a classic, versatile design: a one-handed arming sword. A single-handed blade required an absolute balance of weight, flex, and edge retention—any hidden flaw from the cast would ruin the weapon instantly.

With unshakeable hands, Barney used heavy tongs to hoist the glowing crucible out of the forge. He leaned over the mold, his eyes narrowed behind his heat-shielding goggles, and poured the molten liquid in a single, smooth, continuous stream. The liquefied iron surged into the channels, completely filling the blade, crossguard, and tang.

Up in Squad 07’s viewing box, Seraphina watched the stream through her seat’s optics. "Casting pig iron directly into a blade shape is a huge gamble," she murmured. "Molten pig iron cools with irregular crystal structures. If he doesn’t condense the metal, the blade will shatter the first time it hits armor."

"Barney knows what he’s doing," Rowan said, a confident grin touching his lips. "Casting gets him the general form in seconds without wasting time hand-drawing the length. The real magic happens once he gets his hammer on it."

Down on the arena grounds, Barney didn’t even wait for the mold to fully cool. The moment the poured metal solidified into a dull, radiant red, he kicked the clamps free and smashed the sand mold open with the heel of his boot.

Steam hissed into the air as the steaming, cast blank of the one-handed sword fell onto the heavy steel anvil.

Barney hoisted the Hammer of the Sunken Bastion, the legendary relic humming with a low, resonant vibration as his mana flowed through the handle.

"Now," Barney grunted, his muscles bulging under his sleeves as he raised the massive hammer high overhead, "time to beat the grain into shape."

CLANG! CLANG! CLANG!

The rhythmic, metronomic ringing of Barney’s hammer echoed across the bustling arena grounds, cutting through the chaotic clatter of the other crafting stations.

With unwavering patience and methodical precision, Barney brought the heavy Hammer of the Sunken Bastion down onto the glowing cast blank. Every time the relic hammer struck, a faint, golden shockwave rippled through the hot iron. The pulse forced the irregular, brittle carbon crystal structures of the poured pig iron to realign, condensing the porous metal and compacting the grain into dense, unbroken lattice lines.

Barney didn’t rush. While other student smiths frantically tried to force their metal into shape with brute force—often resulting in warped edges or cracked spines—Barney worked with absolute consistency.

He moved in an unbroken cycle:

He reheated the blade in the forge just enough to keep it malleable without burning out the remaining carbon.

He hammered the bevels, carefully drawing out the distal taper to ensure the sword’s weight favored the hilt for perfect balance.

He repeatedly folded and hammered the edges, driving away microscopic air pockets until the metal ringed with a pure, bell-like tone.

Sweat poured down Barney’s bearded face, steaming off his broad shoulders, but his hands remained completely steady. He worked the tang, forged a clean fuller down the center of the blade to reduce weight without sacrificing structural integrity, and hand-filed the crossguard into a crisp, flush fit.

When the final shaping was complete, Barney plunged the glowing blade into a trough of specialized quenching oil. A thick cloud of white steam erupted into the air, accompanied by a sharp, satisfying hiss.

Pulling the sword from the bath, Barney immediately moved to the tempering hearth, letting gentle, controlled heat draw back the metal’s internal stress so it would bend rather than snap under heavy impact. Finally, he sat at the grinding wheel, bringing the edge to a lethal razor finish.

Up in the stadium seating, the judges and spectating cadets watched in stunned silence as the dark, slag-ridden pig iron block was gone. In its place rested a remarkably sleek, double-edged arming sword. The steel gleamed with a fine, rippling grain pattern, perfectly balanced with a flush leather-wrapped grip and a solid steel pommel.

The trial’s senior evaluator stepped forward, sweeping a glowing diagnostic mana-crystal down the length of the blade.

A holographic banner materialized above Barney’s workstation, displaying the official assessment:

WEAPON EVALUATION RESULT

Item: One-Handed Arming Sword

Base Material: Pig Iron (Basic Tier)

Crafting Grade: Peak E-Grade

Properties: Enhanced Durability, High Edge Retention, Flawless Weight Balance

Gasps broke out across the crafting quadrant.

"Peak E-Grade?!" one instructor exclaimed, staring at the readout in disbelief. "From standard scrap-tier pig iron? To achieve peak grade without using mana-infused alloys or rare monster cores... that’s pure, flawless smithing technique!"

Down at his forge, Barney wiped the sweat from his forehead with the back of his arm. He picked up the newly forged weapon, giving it a swift, effortless wind-mill arc through the air. The blade whistled cleanly through the wind, perfectly balanced and ready for battle.

Up in Squad 07’s viewing box, Rowan grinned, leaning back in his chair. "Told you. Give Barney a piece of junk and a hammer, and he’ll turn it into a masterwork."

As the loud horn echoed across the colosseum, signaling the end of the Forgecraft & Equipment Mechanics Competition, the massive holographic displays over the arena floor refreshed into brilliant golden runes.

The final standings flashed above the stadium floor, officially locking in 2nd Place for Barney right behind the senior artificer cohort representative. The crowd erupted into loud cheers as the evaluators verified his peak-grade crafting metrics.

Wiping a bead of sweat from his forehead, Barney unslung the Hammer of the Sunken Bastion and rested it over his broad shoulder with a proud grin. He made his way off the crafting floor, marching up the stone arena ramp toward Squad 07’s reserved section in the stands.

"Not a bad day at the forge," Barney grunted with a rumbling laugh as he reached the seating area.

He walked down the line, extending a heavy, soot-stained fist to give each member of Squad 07 a crisp fist bump:

First, he bumped fists with Rowan Vance, who grinned under the brim of his enchanted straw hat. "Second place in the entire freshman cohort," Rowan praised, adjusting his gear. "You set us up in a prime position for the trial’s final overall rankings."

Next, Seraphina offered her fist with a satisfied smirk. "You beat out almost every top-tier smith in the academy, Barney. That’s two solid top-three finishes for Squad 07 so far."

Caelen met Barney’s fist with a firm nod of respect. "Flawless work down there. The evaluators didn’t even know how to react to that blade quality."

Finally, Mirei gave him a quick bump, a rare, faint smile on her face. "Glad you didn’t end up breaking the anvil like I warned you."

With the blacksmithing phase concluded and Squad 07’s eligibility firmly secured through the trial’s brutal 50% elimination cut, Barney settled into his seat alongside his squadmates, ready to watch the next category of the Initial Competency Testing Trial begin

***

As the applause for the blacksmithing results began to settle, the central stadium’s massive horn blared once more, sending a heavy pulse through the arena floor.

The golden runes on the main holographic displays dissolved and re-formed, announcing the next category of the Initial Competency Testing Trial: Land Cultivation, Leyline Tuning & Resource Harvesting.

"Looks like you’re up, Boss," Barney grunted with a wide grin, resting his heavy hammer against the bench as he settled into the stands.

"Show them what a real Domain Cultivator can do," Seraphina added with an approving smirk. Caelen and Mirei gave Rowan solid nods of confidence.

Rowan offered a calm chuckle and waved off his squad members. Resting his trusty Hoe of the World-Tiller over his shoulder, he tipped the brim of his Enchanted Straw Hat and marched down the stone steps toward the arena gates.

As he stepped out onto the expansive arena floor, murmurs immediately rippled through the upper spectator tiers. While other cadets brought sleek mana-staffs, elemental catalysts, and heavy extraction array crystals, Rowan stood in his field gear, holding what looked to the uninitiated like ordinary farming tools. Snickers and condescending whispers echoed from the rival Imperial squad and cadet sections nearby.

Unbothered by the chatter, Rowan took his position inside Sector 07’s designated testing plot on the arena floor. The ground beneath him hummed with complex, artificially distorted mana leylines and compacted, unstable terrain designed to eliminate half the participants in speed, purification efficiency, and yield.

Rowan reached up, lightly adjusting the brim of his straw hat as the Enchanted Straw Hat’s subtle stat boost surged through his body. Planted firmly on the earth, he grounded his stance, channeling his internal mana down through the shaft of the Hoe of the World-Tiller.

The countdown timer on the stadium display flashed red to green: 3... 2... 1... BEGIN!

Before the surrounding cadets could even align their spell circles, Rowan lifted his hoe high and slammed the leading edge into the hardened arena floor with absolute precision—activating Earthbreaker Plough.

A radiant, golden shockwave surged outward from his position, instantly shattering the dense earth and unlocking the deep mana channels beneath the arena floor as Rowan prepared to dominate the stage.

With the dense arena ground perfectly shattered and the subterranean leylines unlocked by his initial strike, Rowan smoothly transitioned into the core phase of the cultivation trial.

He retrieved the official academy testing pouch containing high-grade, highly sensitive mana-rich seeds—a notoriously volatile batch designed to test a cultivator’s precision and vital mana control under strict time constraints.

Without wasting a second, Rowan knelt at the center of Sector 07’s freshly tilled plot. He scattered the seeds into the deep furrow lines created by his hoe with practiced ease, spacing each one to maximize subterranean leyline flow.

Once the seeds were positioned, Rowan grounded his palms against the dark soil, taking a deep, focused breath as he activated [Breath of Eden - Lv. 2].

A brilliant, warm pulse of emerald and golden mana cascaded down his arms and flooded directly into the earth. The level 2 skill amplified his natural life-affinity mana, wrapping each buried seed in a concentrated cocoon of nourishing vital force while simultaneously neutralizing the artificial toxicity remnants lurking in the soil.

The reaction was instantaneous:

Instant Germination: The buried seeds drank in the surging Eden mana, swelling and cracking open within seconds.

Rapid Sprouting: Vibrant, emerald-green sprouts burst through the surface of the soil, rapidly thickening into sturdy, luminescent stems that coiled with dense mana.

Peak Purity & Vitality: Glowing buds blossomed into fully matured, mana-infused crops at a speed that defied the standard growth curves of conventional cultivation arrays.

Up in the stands, spectators gasped as Sector 07 was transformed from a fractured testing plot into a lush, overflowing garden of radiant, high-tier flora in a matter of moments. On the main holographic scoreboard above the stadium, Rowan’s evaluation metrics—Germination Speed, Soil Vitality Retention, and Crop Mana Purity—shot straight into the maximum percentile, leaving rival cadets and evaluators scrambling to comprehend his overwhelming efficiency.