n

n

n

nThat day Sam is probably the only second grade solo combat participant that was able to relax.

nRest of the city burned with their fights. The Norse academies lamented at their beautiful city being destroyed because of the competition. The process also revealed a lot of their design flaws to the rest of the academy realm.

nThey need to redesign it and rebuild the whole thing.

nWhen their coin reserves are almost drained, credit to Sam and the Hub, this is another unexpected and unwanted expense. Anyway, that's besides the point.

nThe next morning, Sam went to the Thor academy once again. To the forge just like they day before. The elders are already waiting for them to reveal the second competition.

nAfter the thirty-two people that passed the exam all gathered here. Apart from the Gambler academy with two candidates, there are only a few academies that had two candidates or

nmore.

nThe Viswa Karma academy and Hephaestus academy had three each. They are the most dominant compared to the other academies. There are a couple of academies that had two candidates each.

nThere is one from Zeus academy and Sam hoped that he could eliminate him in this round.

nSensing Sam's gaze that guy shivered visibly. He just wanted to hide away somewhere. But he knew better than hoping that his wish would come true. As everyone observed their competition, the Elder explained the rules for the second round.

n

"With thirty-two people here, as many people would have guessed, we are going with a duel route. All participants will be paired. You need to compete with whoever you are paired with. From each pair, only person will be moved to the next round.

nAs for how that person will be chosen...

nHe waved his hand a blueprint design appeared on the work tables of the participants.

n

"Within that scroll, you will find a design of a weapon. The person you are paired with will also get the same weapon design. There won't be a minor change.

nYour task is to follow the design to every minute detail and create that weapon. You are not to make any changes to the design. The material weight shouldn't change, the alloy percentages shouldn't change, even the micro details on the handles shouldn't change.

nThe only freedom you have is with your forging method.

nYou can use whatever method you are comfortable with. But the end result should look, weight and measure exactly the same as the one shown in the blueprint.

nAfter you are done, your weapon will be compared to the weapon made by your paired opponent. The weapons will be tested in the same circumstances, there will be no difference or bias in the way of testing.

nOnce both of the weapons are tested, whichever weapon has the better make, durability, lethality will win.

nThe duration is four hours.

nDoes everyone understand the point of the competition? Do you have any questions?

"

nThere is only resounding silence from the participants.

n

"I am glad you don't have any. You can start forging now.

"

nSam opened the scroll and he is a bit surprised what he saw. The design kind of brought back some memories.

nA memory of a really great opponent that he faced when he was still in Mortal plane back in desolate. He could even be considered as one of the biggest opponents he faced at that time. Not in terms of the cultivation level, rather in terms of meticulous planning, intellect and backing.

nSanjay... Sam doesn't know how he is doing. If he recovered from the inflected trauma or not. Sam is pretty sure he broke him...

nBut when he was still in mint condition, that guy is a menace when it comes to wielding his chain sickle.

nNow that is the exact weapon in the blueprint. A chain sickle.

nIt has four components.

nThe blade, handle, chain and the counter weight at the tail end of the chain. That is used for the balance of the weapon when throwing.

nIt could become a very complex or a easy weapon to forge depending on the method he chooses. The chain might also take a long time for him to forge compared to rest of the components.

nBased on the duration of the forging, the counter weight will take the shortest time, followed by the handle, the blade and the chain. That is if he sticks to forging everything instead of using some shortcuts.

nFor example, he could create the chain rings in a much faster way by pouring them in moulds. But an object that is made from casting and forging will have completely different properties. For starters Cast objects don't typically have a uniform grain structure as you mentioned. In casting, metal cools and solidifies at different rates, especially in thicker or irregular shapes, which can create non-uniform grain structures. Cast metal is generally weaker than forged metal because casting can result in voids or inclusions, and the grain structure tends to be random.

nForged chain links are generally stronger than cast ones because the forging process aligns the grain structure to the shape of the link, particularly improving strength in areas of high stress, such as bends. This makes the chain less probable to damage in those areas.

n*BANG* *BANG*

nSam came out of his daze as he heard the hammering of other opponents, they already started their own.

nHe decided to get started as well. First, he took the counter weight. The alloying is the easiest part for him. So, he first figured out the alloys and then created the counter weight, with purely heat and metal manipulation.

nHe didn't even hammer it and made it in the perfect counter weight shape as shown in the

ndesign,

nIt took less than five minutes to do it.

nNext, the handle.

nThe handle of the chain sickle is unlike other weapons. Other weapons like swords, sabers, etc has their handles safely secured in the hands of the user. They do take a lot of force from the impact, but the chain sickle is on a whole different level.

nWhen it is thrown, the handle will take the impact directly, it won't even have any other object for example a hand holding it to distribute the impact a bit.

nSo, he decided to forge it carefully, along with the blade.

nBoth of them took a considerable time, and only around a hour and a half was left for the

nchain.

nHe scanned the surroundings and finally focused on his opponent. He grinned so wide that his lips almost left his face. Because the opponent is the Zeus candidate that he wanted to deal with. His wish did come true.

nAnd he looked at the opponent's progress. He is spending his time on the handle and the

nblade. It seems like he is done with the chain and the weight. From the mess he left behind, he definitely used some moulds to do it this fast.

nSam is a bit surprised.

nWhy would someone with this much experience in forging make such amateur mistake?

nIt seems like he is making a weapon only for the test not for it to last longer for regular use. Sam just shrugged and focused on forging the chain links one after the other. A repetitive action, until he had all the chain links.

nOnce it is done, he linked the chain together, then linked the counter weight and the blade along with its handle.

nNow that the assembly is done, his weapon is ready.

n

"Time is up.

" And then came the announcement. Everyone was working until the last minute.

nSam didn't care much for the other people's pass or fail. He only got curious when Manson's turn came. He had to forge a meteor hammer. Two weights on either side with a chain connecting them. Hard to master, but very flexible and hard to forge as well.

nHe observed the tests carefully. First test is against a training dummy, the second test is against super strong pillar. They need to beat it down continuously until it breaks. Finally, a test clashing both the weapons together, if both weapons survive that clash, then a durability with the formation like they did in Katar restoration test.

nManson's meteor hammer went through all three. In the final test, his meteor hammer clashed head on with the meteor hammer of the opponent.

nWhen both the weights hit each other, a few cracks appeared on Manson's weight, but the

nopponent's is destroyed.

nHe won.

nFinally, it is Sam's turn. He looked forward to the test, because just from observing the forging method, he knew what will happen to his opponent's weapon.

nThe first training dummy test has begun.

n*BANG* *BANG

n

"1234

"

"1345

" Both of their scores came out, and surprising everyone, Sam's chain sickle had less score. Even

nthe judges are shocked, much less the opponent.

nThen they moved to the pillar.

n

"10 Hits

"

n

"10 Hits

"

nBoth weapons performed equally. Now a clash against the weapons.

n*CLANG*

nBoth the sickles were thrown at the same time. The blade of each sickle went into the chains of

nthe opposite sickle. Both sides pulled at the same time.

n*SNAP*

nJust like that, the opponent's chain is snapped. Not at one point. The link at the center where

nthe sickle is locked, and the joint where the handle of the sickle is attached to the chain.

nThe opponent who just had some hope fell in despair. So, close. But he lost.

n

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