Stilling twirling her inscriptions pen as if the going-ons before her were less than trivial, Elizabeth responded with a taciturn, "Sure." She thought it would be awkward and possibly even detrimental to refuse with so many people expecting an interview. So… even if she wished for nothing more than to move to the Second Stage, she held back her grief and accepted the invitation to speak publically.

"Ok then… I presume this is your first time competing in the Forging Event? Would you like to tell us more about yourself, your faction, or anything else in general?"

"This is my first time coming to a Wus.h.i.+ Tournament. As for the other questions… What else do you want to know?" Thinking of something to say for an interview was not a skill Elizabeth had developed. Even when talking to strangers, she would usually only listen for a while until they grew on her before she would elect to give out information without being prompted.

Taking a gander at her appearance, the interviewer didn't even have to think before he said, "Let's see… You look young enough, so how about we start with your age?"

"I'm fifteen~" Although Elizabeth responded honestly, the crowd, both in the compet.i.tor and spectator areas, couldn't help but explode in gossip. 'Fifteen? Where would such a young la.s.s find the time to train up her skill as a smith if she had only matured to the age of fifteen?' Thoughts like these and many more were spoken dozens of times over as the people around Elizabeth felt her existence to be all the more unbelievable.

"Wow! At a mere fifteen-years-old, you developed such amazing refinement skills!? Surely you must have trained since the moment you were strong enough to pick up a smithing hammer!" This was but a fleeting comment, thrown by the interviewer to make Elizabeth seem all the more talented. Yet, Elizabeth managed to find a way to flip the comment and turn it into the source of even further chaos, as she said, "Um… I entered the Martial Society about three weeks ago."

Quiet… The whole arena instantly became drop-dead silent after Elizabeth continued to respond honestly. At that moment, not even the sounds of breathing could be heard as the straw that broke the camel's back couldn't have been pictured any clearer from the response Elizabeth received from her fellow compet.i.tors.

"Bulls.h.i.+t!" Finally, the first compet.i.tor that had been boiling over on the sidelines couldn't help but curse. In the wake of his comment, several of the other compet.i.tors that were deep in a mix of jealousy, bitterness, and shame couldn't help but chime in.

"She's fifteen, She's only been in a part of the Martial Society for three weeks, and she's managed to refine chuck of spiritual iron several kilograms heavy to utter perfection in ten minutes? Young lady… there should be limits to how hard you can boast..."

"Ten minutes?" Suddenly Daniel Cherkovski's voice entered the fray and succeeded in silencing the rest the dissenting voices. When only his voice could be heard, he continued saying, "For this compet.i.tion, I finished six minutes after the start of the event was called." Hearing up to this point, various people tried to curry favor with him by highlight how impressive of an achievement it was to reach a 97% refinement rate with a spiritual metal after only spending 6 minutes in the refinement process. However, the result of such praise only caused him to smile helplessly as he finished his thought by saying, "However… Ms. Elizabeth was the only other person I saw that had finished her refining at that time. She's somehow even faster than me..."

"Impossible! Cherkovski is a Martial King nearing the end of that Cultivation Stage! This little girl can't possibly be at his level!"

"I agree, there has to have been a mistake!"

"Chant with me, brothers! Show us proof! Show us proof! Show..." Elizabeth didn't know who started it, but very quickly, this chant demanding that she prove herself had grown like a wildfire and even the spectators began chanting.

In response to almost the entire arena turning against her, Elizabeth smiled as gestured to the interviewer to pa.s.s her the mic. Shaking her head all the while, she said, "Ok~ Hand me a piece of raw ore."

Again, the whole arena silenced themselves in complete shock that she would agree so easily. More than anyone, the compet.i.tors were in disbelief as they expected Elizabeth to demand they respect her talent and request for the higher-ups to show them her results. Taking up their challenge to refine another chunk of metal under the pressure of literally everyone having their eyes on her was a bold move that even most of the veteran smiths would refuse.

However, because the tournament was on a strict schedule, the compet.i.tors and spectators alike were refused the proof they wanted. Inside the VIP area, the announcer's mic was overtaken by one of the elders who had personally gauged Elizabeth work and with unbridled fury, he said, "What utter nonsense! Compet.i.tor #1103 doesn't owe any of you any proof? Hmph! Uneducated swine… you dare call into question our ability to judge? Her work has been peer-reviewed by ALL the judges. So, settle back to your seats and let's get..." He would have continued to speak, but Lady Keter's voice distorted in the background, saying, "Let her prove it. It'll only take two minutes~"

Just like that, the previously fuming elder rescinded his words from an instance prior. He turned to the mic and nervously said, "Nevermind… Get her a piece of ore..." In utter terror of Lady Keter, the elder would rather lose a bit of his reputation by instantly turning the nature of his words, than even think of antagonizing such a terrifying woman.

Elizabeth however, didn't care either way. Although she was happy that the elder initially moved to vouch for her skill, a minute or two wasted in appeasing the higher-ups in the Martial Society wouldn't hurt her in the long run. She didn't have to wait long for an attendant to rush another equally sized piece of ore her way. Before even being told to start, Elizabeth instantly threw the ore into her furnace and began refining it.

Two minutes later, another perfectly refined ingot of iron quickly cooled off in Elizabeth's hand. Using her Ice Innate Skill, Temp Drain, Elizabeth rushed the quenching process and within seconds, the piece of iron was ready for evaluation. Confused, Elizabeth turned to the interviewer and spoke into his mic, "So… Who gets to decide if this is good enough?"

As she finished speaking, the silhouette of a human appeared in the skies just above the arena. Within the second, the silhouette descended the skies and landed next to Elizabeth. Looking at the elderly man before her, Elizabeth found the answer to her question, so she extended the iron ingot in her hand to the Spirit Realm elder before her.

The elder took the ingot into his hands and carefully a.n.a.lyzed it from several angles. He tapped on the metal several times, each subsequent tapping incorporating more and more of his strength until the metal finally bent before fixing it back to place and taking the interviewer's mic to say, "Again, it's a perfect 100% refinement rate..."

Dejected by this absurdist reality, the elder was about to return to the VIP area, but before leaving, he couldn't help turn back to the mic and ask Elizabeth the question that was every smith's mind. He asked, "What… which school of forging do you follow?" In essence, the question boiled down to "What method did you use to refine the metal?"

As Elizabeth registered the question, her face brightened up bashfully, as she said, "That's a bit embarra.s.sing… You see, I don't know any advanced smithing techniques. With cultivation, martial arts, and everything else I've learned since I entered the Martial Society three weeks ago, I've only been able to learn to the basics..."

Cringing, the elder said, "I see..." He then fled as if his life depended on it, quickly flying back into the VIP area. Without knowing it, Elizabeth had succeeded in thoroughly humiliating both veteran and apprentice level smiths with her comments. Cementing herself as an anomalous demon smith, Elizabeth became the source of everyone's attention as the Event pressed on. The interviewer knew that his time had mostly run out after the impromptu refining session Elizabeth conducted to prove her validity, so he quickly closed off the interview and scampered off the stage.

With the first Stage cleared, another buzz prompted the start of the next stage as the announcer spoke through the public announcement system. He said, "Moving onto Stage Two, the remaining compet.i.tors will each be given a piece of refined chest armor and will be tasked with engraving the provided inscription formula. Whereas Stage One measured the compet.i.tors' ability with regards to Refinement, Stage Two evaluates the compet.i.tors' Engraving and Synchronization skills. Only the top 100 smiths will be allowed to proceed to the next Stage and those that cannot at least produce stable inscriptions with a boost to refinement rate by 10% will be disqualified as well."