I was in the waiting room with the other players waiting for the judges to finish their judgments. A while later an attendant came in and called for us to return and we filed back out to the event area. Gordon was standing on his usual pedestal as he addressed everyone.

“Thank you for attending this event. We will now announce our winners.”

Gordon then went through the winners starting with last place. He then showed the swords they enchanted. Third and second place were the only ones that placed an enchantment on both sides of the blade. I was surprised to learn that was a very rare thing to do.

“Now the moment everyone has been waiting for. First place goes to player Gwyndolyn.”

Name: Eldritch Mind Slayer

Rarity: Unique

Damage: 1200

INT +50

Requirements: Touched by the Abyss

Enchantments (visible):

Eldritch Chilling Tendrils: INT x 5 Necrotic Damage and stops healing for 10 seconds. Summons shadowy tendrils to hold target in place and deals necrotic damage equal to INT for 15 seconds.

Dissonant Shield: Erects a shield of force that reduces damage by 25%. Nullifies spells made of force damage. The attacker takes psychic damage equal to INT x 2 for 5 seconds. causes deafness and blindness and the target hears the whispering of a thousand tortured souls for the duration.

The sword I enchanted was now on display for everyone. There was a moment of silence before the arena erupted into chatter. Gordon cleared his throat trying to get everyone’s attention.

“As you can see, this sword has two compound enchantments on it, bringing the total enchantment level to four. The enchantments also raised the grade of the sword to unique. The first enchantment is activated on attack while the second is reactionary.” Gordon explained the details of the sword to everyone.

I was confused by his explanations because I thought what I had done was basic enchanting but just like the potion event I was shown that my methods were actually some kind of advanced technique. Now I am questioning just who exactly Old Man was.

I was brought out of my thoughts as Gordon continued his explanations. “An enchanter would normally be able to increase the item grade by one level but here we see it was increased by two levels. So, without further ado I present to you the winners! For everyone who participated, we will gift you the weapons you enchanted.”

We were then given back the swords and I received a new title, Enchanter Prodigy. I also received a set of masterwork engraving tools and enchanting supplies as well as blank blueprints for my own designs. I stretched my arms and back a bit as I waited for some of the other contestants to leave the arena before I made my way back to Yuki and company.

“Damn Sarah. First the potion contest, now the enchanting one. Is there anything you aren’t good at?” Alex mockingly asked me. I gave out a small sigh and shrugged before responding.

“I thought the thing I learned from Old Man were all basic stuff, but it turns out it wasn’t or maybe they were just different methods. Either way I wasn’t expecting it to be this good.”

“At least you got to keep that awesome sword.” Yuki said from behind Alex. “I wonder how your alchemy event will go.”

“Please don’t remind me. If the last two are anything to go by, I’ll do something ridiculous again in that. I am glad it’s next though. I want to get this over with.” I said as I pinched the bridge of my nose feeling a headache oncoming. I just had to wait thirty minutes for the next event.

We waited and wandered around for a bit and headed back to the arena for my last event. I separated from the group and made my way back to the waiting room. After waiting for a while, I noticed that there were no other players in the room with me. I was beginning to think I was early but that thought was squashed once an attendant came and got me, though the look of confusion on their face didn’t escape my notice.

I was brought to the contest area and that’s when I realized I was the only person who signed up for this event. There was nobody else here. Gordon eventually made his way onto the stage looking a bit nervous. He looked over at one of the organizers for the event and spoke.

“Is this really everyone? Why wasn’t this event cancelled if we only had one contestant?” Gordon asked.

The other person whispered some things to Gordon which led him to sigh. He then turned to everyone and addressed the people.

“Looks like we only had one contestant sign up for this event. Gwyndolyn will win by default. Though since you are here, if you don’t mind, could you just demonstrate some of your alchemy skills?” Gordon said as he looked at me. Seeing how I won by default I suppose I could do a little something.

I nodded my head and walked over to the table where they had various materials and selected a rock. I walked back to my station and inscribed my transmutation circle and placed the rock inside it. A menu popped up with a compatible list of transmutations I had learned. I chose copper, then I placed my hands on the two inductor circles and transferred my mana into them. The array glowed white for a moment and the stone turned red hot as if it was plucked from a magma pool. Shortly after the glow died down and inside the transmutation circle sat a chunk of copper.

Gordon walked over to my booth and picked up the item and inspected it. “Perfect! We have here ladies and gentlemen a perfect transmutation of stone to copper. A shame there was no one else participating in this event. Alchemy is great for those who want to craft as it allows you to change items into other items needed for a specific recipe.”

I was then rewarded with a portable alchemy board that I could customize for my needs and several different materials. I have to say though, that last event was really anti-climactic. Luckily, I was done, and the girls and I could focus on our training for the dungeon event coming next week. I wasn’t going to sit around here, and watch people catch fish or bugs.

I met back up with my group and I could see that a lot of other players were dissatisfied with the last event.

“Well, that was kind of boring not gonna lie.” Yuki said as she walked up to me.

“Can’t be helped. I was the only one in the competition. I find it funnier how someone dropped the ball and didn’t cancel the event. I mean someone had to have had the list of all the participants. They should have known there was only one name.” I said to Yuki.

“It wasn’t for nothing. You did get some items out of that. I say we celebrate by taking a quest from the adventure hall. We could do with some killing. Plus, we need to work on some of our teamwork for the dungeon crawl next week.” Alex said to the group.