Blacksmith of the Apocalypse

What Fin's win really meant was not immediately obvious to most people, but it became public knowledge in the course of the next days. Fin, who was previously unranked, had beaten a brawler in their own field and taken their rank.

This meant that people could also challenge and gain a rank in a category, as long as they were strong enough to beat the person in their own expertise. However, this was not all. As was proven in the challenges of the following days, people could also be ranked on several leaderboards, as long as they had the skills to compete with the rankers.

Not only had unfairly unranked people like Tekar and Fin a chance to get a rank according to their specialization, people could even occupy more than one or two places on the leaderboards using the skills of their second classes, or special classes.

Seth had a sudden inspiration. What if he managed to get a high rank on the Goldsmith Leaderboard, too? Rank one as Blacksmith unconditionally improved his crafting proficiency by 200%. The only question was, would ranking first as a Goldsmith multiply his proficiency gain by five, or by nine?

Admittedly, there was another question. Who was ranked first on the Goldsmith leaderboard? He had to find that out first. Of course, if he couldn't get the first place right away, there was no shame in taking a lower ranking first.

As it so happened, there was quite the chaos among the ranks of the craftsman. As most craftsmen of Urth were close in level, their ranks kept constantly shifting as they challenged each other. The reason was simple, just as fighters could use their rank to advertise their strength, crafters could use their rank for advertisement.

While the first and second places on the Goldsmith Leaderboard were still unknown, almost all below had their names revealed either by choice or challenge. Interestingly enough, something similar also happened on the blacksmith leaderboard, but all the commotion happened below the 10th rank.

Blacksmiths had obviously developed a little quicker than Goldsmiths and managed to hide their identities. None in the top 10 had been challenged or revealed. Seth only knew three out of the top 10. namely himself had rank 1, Hoen at rank 4, and Wedan at rank 6.

Seeing the dwarfs not taking second and third place as Journeymen, surprised Seth and showed him, that there were a bunch of people with good skills on Urth. Judging by the product Baker sent, a few were most likely in Y-City...

Looking back to the goldsmiths, unfortunately, the third and fourth places were people also from Y-City. They were too far away for Seth to challenge. Looking at the ranking, there was only one option.

Orry Abell, ranked number 5 on the Leaderboard.

He was the next best person Seth could challenge in Delta. The man was quite open about his skill level at the early stage of a journeyman. Seth doubted he would have a problem defeating him in a battle of skill.

The blacksmith had other concerns. He knew from Hoen and Wedan, that 4thplace would still get a 50% buff while 6th place gave 20%. Was it really worth getting his name known on the leaderboard for that? There was a possibility that his rank as a blacksmith would be revealed, too.

In the end, he went to ask Simon about it before making the decision to challenge Orry to a battle of skill. Although the priest had been vague, the hints were enough to ascertain that the rankings were separated.

Just like Bartoli had challenged an Unranked player and lost his place to Fin, an unranked player could also challenge a ranker for their place on the Leaderboard. As Seth did not have a rank as a Goldsmith it would count as the latter.

Seth sent his challenge letter a few days after Fin's meteoric win and Abell surprisingly accepted and even asked for the duel on the same day. Although the blacksmith was a little surprised, he was rather free in his time management, so he accepted.

...

Unlike during martial duels, the stadium was empty. The crafting challenges were not public and also didn't come with a public announcement. The system church had refurbished rooms inside the stadium with crafting stations to accommodate all classes represented on the leaderboards.

By providing the same calibrated crafting stations and materials, they guaranteed the fairness of the duel. It was a contest of pure skill, not equipment. Now, one could argue that it was unfair that fighters could theoretically use their equipment in duels, but craftsmen had to use the provided facilities.

Nobody heard any of the craftsmen ever complain for a simple reason. It was for a simple reason. Fights were a simulation of real battles to the death. On the battlefield or in the dungeon, it didn't matter whether someone won by using a powerful item, or skill. The winner would live, and the loser would die.

Craftsmen on the other hand didn't fight to the death. They prided themselves in their skills, so obviously everyone agreed to leave their equipment advantages behind and concentrate on a fair duel in pure skill.

According to the rules, both men arrived in their "arena" only wearing simple, robust work clothes. It was a room split in two, with each side looking exactly the same, with the same basic crafting stations needed for goldsmiths. Most prominently a jeweler's table with tools, a small furnace with crucibles, and a small anvil.

Orry entered the arena in anticipation. He had seen the items that were sold in the Turquoise Anvil and looked forward to meeting the man, behind those works of art. He had held quite a bit of admiration for the creator and couldn't help feeling nervous about finally getting a chance to see the man in action.

Although he had heard about the Tower Master speech on TV, he had not personally watched it. The middle-aged man was very surprised when he saw how young Seth was. Orry himself had been a goldsmith before the apocalypse. Although he had chosen a fighter class at first, with the peace brought by Chrona, he was able to change back to his original profession.

He couldn't help but wonder that Seth had managed to develop such skill at his age. Though, he didn't doubt the man for one moment. Even when wearing the simple working clothes, the tower master was packed with defined muscles that bore witness to his hard work.

Despite having the muscles of a blacksmith, his hands were slender and dexterous like those of a goldsmith or clocksmith. Overall, despite being an old man, Orry couldn't help but be awed.

<Ding! System Announcement: The Official Ranking Match between 5th ranked Player on the Goldsmith leaderboard "Orry Abell" and the unranked Player "Seth Smith" will now commence.>

The young man's eyes only observed Orry for a moment, before they focused on the task at hand. For this challenge on the journeyman level, the church had provided sheets of <Mithril> to make a piece of jewelry of their choice.

As a rare material, a journeyman-ranked craftsman would have no problems working with the materials comfortably. While the tower master only thought for a moment before picking up the material with practiced moves, Orry's eyes were glued to the other's work.

At this moment he didn't care about the challenge, the chance to admire a more skilled craftsman during his work, was worth more to him. Despite being an experienced Goldsmith, Seth's moves had a special quality to them, that he himself lacked.

Unlike him, who was used to the normal ways his work was done, the tower master had completely incorporated the effects that came with the system's improvement. Strength, Dexterity, and skills, it was like watching a well-oiled machine work.

His opponent didn't even bother using a saw, or the furnace, as he manipulated small blue flames like gas burners to cut and weld the material. All the while, he was singing a foreign melody with words, Orry couldn't understand but somehow enjoyed.

It was probably an awkward sight for the referee, as one of the contestants worked uninterrupted, while the other just stood there and watched.

After finishing the base of a pendant, a chose and set several gems from the ones provided in its middle, before changing to the engraving tool. Only then did Orry notice, that the gems were actually set in a pattern to connect with and empower the enchantment the Tower Master was now engraving.

The old goldsmith couldn't understand the effects of the complicated formation. He was too far away to see clearly, but he doubted that he would be able to understand them with his beginner-rank <Enchantment>.

It was like waking up from a dream when the pendant was finally finished and Seth set it onto the podium to present the finished works for judgment. Shortly after, their allotted time ended. One had a finished piece, the other had not even bothered to do any work, and the judgment was quite clear.

<Ding! Participant Abell has not offered a piece for judgment in time. Winner: Seth Smith.>

<Ding! Seth Smith has climbed to Rank 5 on the Goldsmith leaderboard.>

Orry didn't feel bad or bothered by his loss. He had felt his skill proficiency rising, just from watching Seth work. After all he had seen, he couldn't help but follow his impulse, even if it was slightly embarrassing.