Chapter 2318: Second round of forging


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    That day Sam is probably the only second grade solobat participant that was able to rx.


    Rest of the city burned with their fights. The Norse academiesmented at their beautiful city being destroyed because of thepetition. The process also revealed a lot of their design ws to the rest of the academy realm.


    They need to redesign it and rebuild the whole thing.


    When 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.


    The 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 secondpetition.


    After 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


    more.


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


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


    Sensing Sam''s gaze that guy shivered visibly. He just wanted to hide away somewhere. But he knew better than hoping that his wish woulde true. As everyone observed theirpetition, the Elder exined the rules for the second round.


    "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 topete with whoever you are paired with. From each pair, only person will be moved to the next round.


    As for how that person will be chosen...


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


    "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.


    Your 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.


    The only freedom you have is with your forging method.


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


    After you are done, your weapon will bepared 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.


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


    The duration is four hours.


    Does everyone understand the point of thepetition? Do you have any questions?"


    There is only resounding silence from the participants.


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


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


    A memory of a really great opponent that he faced when he was still in Mortal ne back in deste. 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 nning, intellect and backing.


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


    But when he was still in mint condition, that guy is a menace when ites to wielding his chain sickle.


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


    It has fourponents.


    The de, handle, chain and the counter weight at the tail end of the chain. That is used for the bnce of the weapon when throwing.


    It could be a veryplex or a easy weapon to forge depending on the method he chooses. The chain might also take a long time for him to forgepared to rest of theponents.


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


    For 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 havepletely 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 irregr 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.N?v(el)B\\jnn


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


    *BANG* *BANG*


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


    He 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 maniption.


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


    design,


    It took less than five minutes to do it.


    Next, the handle.


    The 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.


    When 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.


    So, he decided to forge it carefully, along with the de.


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


    chain.


    He 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 dide true.


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


    de. 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.


    Sam is a bit surprised.


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


    It seems like he is making a weapon only for the test not for it tost longer for regr 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.


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


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


    "Time is up." And then came the announcement. Everyone was working until thest minute.


    Sam 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.


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


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


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


    opponent''s is destroyed.


    He won.


    Finally, 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.


    The first training dummy test has begun.


    *BANG* *BANG


    "1234" "1345" Both of their scores came out, and surprising everyone, Sam''s chain sickle had less score. Even


    the judges are shocked, much less the opponent.


    Then they moved to the pir.


    "10 Hits"


    "10 Hits"


    Both weapons performed equally. Now a sh against the weapons.


    *CLANG*


    Both the sickles were thrown at the same time. The de of each sickle went into the chains of


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


    *SNAP*


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


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


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