46 || Unusual Relic! Breaking into Billowing Muscle?!

"How could you let some little Dwarf girl make a fool of you?!" Spear Monkey, the boss of the Scissor Hearts branch in the Asizi Kingdom, yells at Elegant Chance, who called within a jail cell. It's the only thing the young Pugilist could do. Even logging out he came back into the cell. Spear Monkey had specifically chosen this newbie because he had some rich backing.

Instead he has embarrassed the Guild and in turn made some unknown team the talk of the forums. Spear Monkey doesn't wait for a response. Instead he has to crush this thorn with a show of force. Unlike a 2nd-rate Guild like Broken Heart, he can easily gather two hundred of his members to mobilize without interfering with their operation.

These men and women quickly find Syringa Fang and her group. They are currently taking a break from attempting to level up. During a rest in the chat room, Gladiolus Rain informs the other side that she was level 10 and it wouldn't be long till the others caught up. There's no reason for Syringa's side to lag behind.

When she sees the symbol of the Scissor Hearts, Syringa Fang is well aware that they had come for vengeance but Fang has no intentions to repeat what Gladiolus did, lest people connect the two teams.

"I have 50 silver on my person as well as a Common Level 13 Named weapon. Will you make a bet that whoever defeats me in one on one gets these items?" She suggests. The leader of this two hundred person team accepts and the System locks in the conditions. Fighting just 12 people back to back should drain her Focus and Stamina, to say nothing of 200! When they win Ruby Blade's prestige would crumble, he would be rich, and then by offering the weapon up to the Guild Leader will better his placement.

This proves to be a mistake as the 20th person goes down. Syringa Fang constantly causes Drain, the effect of a Dark Ifrit's Ancestral Skill [Elemental Weapon], to trigger. Her resources seem endless as she takes down each member with a single swipe of her glaive, making their Stamina and Essence her own.

As Gladiolus Rain and Syringa Fang etch their names into the hearts of the public and the eyes of the powers, on the third and final day of the competition, Tara finally finishes her task. With the help of the inscription pattern given to her, she and Oorun easily create Minor Artifacts out of the 200 sets.

With each hammer strike she makes, she feels more comfortable with her new strength. When she had made the bookmarks, Tara definitely felt her control of spiritual energy is much better and that her spirit port was growing with each use. Oorun enters a small hibernation period during this time.

In truth, Tara could have finished it all on the second day. However, since the competition was a three day event, she took the last day to focus on the 11 sets of mysterious ore. Knowing it is precious, she wanted to be careful and delicate with them. 10 of them were for the various leaders of her two teams while the final one was a gift.

Unbeknownst to her, the moment she completes using the final set and places it within the ring, she's ejected from the room. Each space is set to have each person leave the moment they use every set before them. They are unaware of how their competition is doing and would only realize how well they had done once they used all the materials. Tara is the last of the final ten folks to make it to the third day.

"Good, you have all finished!" States the naga masked lady as Tara appears before the crowd. "We will now begin the appraisal period. Remember that quantity isn't everything as we also look at quality."

The weaker crowd only took out 5 swords, all of pretty okay quality. Among the everyday common forgers, they'd be considered geniuses at their age. They can't compare to those that had made it through all three days, however, with upwards of twenty weapons. A 25 year old falcon Animus, who the Crown Prince of Sharost had picked himself, proudly has 30 high-quality weapons. He smirks at the 12 year old girl beside him. There is no way a child could--

"Great ancestors," The naga masked woman gasps, catching everyone's attention. The young girl pulls out some fifty-plus weapons out of her ring. Not only that but each weapon gives off different elemental energies. There's also something that even the highest level of aurator, Sect Master Nie Yao, can't recognize right away.

The naga masked woman picks up a jian that gathers Dark energy. Such weapons are hard to find and even harder to create. The moment her hand grasps around the hilt, the energy around her surges and her body feels explosive energy rush through her body. This is--!

The woman quickly picks up each weapon whether they were one of the four cardinal weapons or something unique like a hammer or scythe. Even though they aren't aligned with her Dark affinity each one replicates the feeling, simply weaker. How is it possible?

"The winner of this competition is Tara Hufang. If there are any objections please feel free to step forward and inspect any of her weapons yourself." The naga masked woman speaks calmly but there is a breathlessness in her words that makes everyone nervous.

Any of those who are about to cause a scene for taking so long with the young girl pause as the woman picks up the earlier jian. To ease everyone's concerns, Sect Master Nie Yao steps forward and takes one of Tara's spears, his preferred weapon.

It immediately gathers Fire energy from thin air instantly! Never had he felt such a bond with a weapon. Even the Soul Bead us well chosen, a Smoke Cardinal, and high quality at that.

Seeing his reaction everyone relents. This is a child definitely blessed by Heaven with hands that made masters weep. The other competitors watch on in shock, especially those from Sharost!

Tara collects her weapons back into her ring. They had never said she couldn't keep them, so she was planning on sending them back to her family. Despite not having been made with mysterious ore, the fifty weapons are possibly better quality and would be helpful in defending her family.

Tara follows the Sect Master and the judge, leaving everyone else's mouths' slack as they are dismissed. Defeated by some child, how can this be?! As they leave the Trial of Tower Zone, they representatives from other academies and Sharost immediately try to find information about this prodigal daughter that was favored by the forges.

Tara is brought to a matted room. They sit down before a tea table, the masked woman placing the sword onto it. Tara's Inspect, which had leveled up to 3 not counting the Key to Light Charm's bonus, can't even read the woman's basic information and only saw question marks.

"My name is Madam Wodan of the Eight Prisms Sect. Consider us the main branch with Eightswords as an extension."

Madam Wodan's name replaces the question marks above her as Tara lifts her head from a bow. "Tara Hufang, Dark Saber student and Headmaster Beiling's disciple."

"It's as they say, prodigal children find their own," Madam Wodan laughs. "When my junior martial brother here told me his best student had finally taken a disciple, I had been merely curious. Never would have guessed that you'd become a high tier Bone Crystallization before adulthood."

"I'm curious how strong you are now. Physically you were at low tier Billowing Muscle after arriving at the start of Bone Crystallization." Nie Yao muses as he places the spear to his side.

"Even those old fogeys who are well into their second century can't make so many Artifacts so easily. Nor any genius children of my Eight Prism sect raises," Madam Wodan suddenly looks conflicted which earns a hearty laugh from the Sect Master.

"It has been some time since I've seen that look! You can't be thinking of poaching young Tara?" He smiles but it doesn't reach his eyes.

"N-no of course not! She will surely do well in your sect before meeting our standards. But I will be keeping an eye on her." She moves to return the weapon, as does the Sect Master, but Tara declines. They are a gift to them instead.

Despite being masked, Tara can tell Madam Wodan is grinning at the gesture. The reward is an octagonal version of a rubix cube except each square was pitch black. Found in a far away ruin, it emits a faint, yet overbearing pressure. It's unknown what lies within and can be considered another test from the Eight Prisms sect.

Tara is excused and has to figure out her next move. With the tournament in a year's time, she thought it would be best to try and break into Billowing Muscle. When she asks Beiling, who is extremely proud that she had caught Eight Prisms' attention, she is told Billowing Muscles is the second hardest lower stage. This is because it took thousands of battles to get the body ready for the upper stages, unless someone had a special physique.

Tara immediately heads for the elemental chambers afterwards. She sets the room at the highest it can go: for every 12 hours in the chamber, 1 hour would pass outside. This way she could maximize her final day of this session. The moment she steps into the trial chamber, a large room with four ocean colored walls, a humanoid figure pulls itself from the floor. The figure ripples until they've taken on Tara's appearance.

[Trial of Water unlocked! Lowest level requirement high tier Bone Crystallization met!]

[Defeat your clone!]

When Tara calls her daggers and the clone mirrors the action, solidifying water into Sun Claw and Moon Fang. Tara flickers before them with Tiger Swipe which is quickly parried and countered with a Tiger Lunge. They trade a few dozen blows and Arts before Tara rests.

It was only a short exchange, but Tara's already confirmed a few things:

Firstly, the clone is a stage or two above her. They move quicker and strike heavier than her. Secondly, the clone's body is made from water. There isn't any aura present but instead Water energy that causes any damage to rapidly mitigate and heal.

The Burn and Bleed statuses, which both of her weapons can use, are completely nullified. Finally, just like a mirror, the clone knows every skill she does and what works best to counter or deflect them.

Frankly, Tara couldn't ask for a better training partner to push through to Billowing Muscles!

There are many things she wishes to put into practice. For example, she had only figured out how to conjure the fusion elements. Tara had yet to apply them in combat, if she can do so at all!

[Water Mirror Clone, Rare Elite]

"Okay so Inspect still works!" Tara checks. As she can't know her own stats, her clone doesn't give any information pertaining to that. She rushes the clone who goes into a defensive position at the sudden charge.

Tara's eyes then flash with a mysterious white light when Sun Claw's saw blade clashes with the copy's. The burst of unexpected force flings the copy's arm up into the air, leaving them wide open! Tara continues with Tiger Lunge, finally successful in hitting the copy.

Tara fights continuously without stopping for twenty minutes with her eyes glowing white every five minutes. Each time her strength seems to increase or she takes advantage of a gap in the clone's defenses! This is the Key to Light's Pinpoint ability, which had a cooldown of five minutes.

In that short time span, Tara learns the clone can't mimic Pinpoint nor apply the negative status effects from Sun Claw. Tara is, however, blocked from summoning Oorun to aid her.