Infinite Realm

*Thump*

"Ah~ Finally!" Yato rejoiced as he laid down on the floor casually.

It had been 7 days(RT) since Sato had passed the Blacksmith guild's test and during these days, a lot of events had occurred. After meeting up with Fudo, Yato and the others, Sato informed them in detail about his experiences on the 10th floor after which he brought the group with him there. He planned on turning the  Great Hall of Grey Chaplains to their base since they were the only ones who currently knew of it. With the added security of the kobold king's to the central hall's test and the hidden location, it was the perfect hideout. 

As for how Sato got the others in despite the existence of the rampaging kobold king, Sato simply used a teleportation rune. This was one of the basic privileges he got from being allowed official access to the Hall of Grey Chaplains. As long as he was within the premises of Black Grill's Cave, he could teleport in and out of the floor that housed the central tower at will. Sato could also bring a maximum of 2 people with him and with Xue Yan having the same privilege, it wasn't difficult to bring the other 5.

While they did get in, Fudo and the others still had to pass the test to gain official access. The test format could allow a maximum of 2 individuals to 1 Achiever with the goal of making 6 hits, or 5 individuals to 2 Achievers or 1 Achiever at a higher power level with the goal of making 7 hits. Actually, depending on the number of challengers, the test would change in accordance. To make things easier and accommodate the weaker ones, the team chose the 5 man to 1 Achiever format. 

The team of 5 spent the first 2 days levelling up in other maps, raising the team's overall power level after all, it was better to face the test when they were much stronger than they were. As a result, Seiichi, Katsuo and Yato all became level 8 players and also got their sub-classes, boosting their overall fighting prowess to a higher level. Lu Zhen found it difficult to reach level 9 but on the last day, he succeeded in breaking through and finally reached the ranks of Sato and Fudo to become one of the highest levelled player in the team. The reason the team improved this much was thanks to their expedition on the 10th floor, that saw them defeat a lot of high levelled monsters for their rank. Even after being shared amongst 7 players, the experience was still sizeable. 

While the others battled monsters, Sato and Fudo focused on their sub-class. The reason was simple; if they wanted to get to level 10, the weak monsters around wouldn't help. The only option was to face the kobolds on the 10th floor or battle the kobold king. Rather than calling it the only method, it was more accurate to call it the fastest method. For most pro players, fast was usually better than stable so Sato and Fudo made the same decision. While Sato spent his time perfecting his blacksmithing skills at both the Blacksmith guild and the Blacksmith area in the Central tower, Fudo did the same. The knowledge for sub-classes wasn't only limited to Blacksmithing neither was the huge quantity of books only a feature for them. In fact, the alchemy and rune-forging(aka Inscribing) section had more books than the Blacksmith section. With such a truckload of knowledge left lying around, Fudo took his time to go through them and perfect his art, just like Sato did.

Whilst everyone got busy, Xue Yan was actually the busiest. Similar to Sato, Xue Yan didn't need to participate in the battle with the 5 so she had much more free time than they did, yet she still felt it wasn't enough. The first 2 days were spent levelling up like the others, letting her reach level 8, but the remaining 5 days were spent honing her battle skills and increasing her knowledge on runes. 

Xue Yan choosing Rune-forging for her sub-class wasn't because she was influenced by the others but instead she happened to develop an interest in it. After realising that Saimon controlled the Achiever's via runes and also witnessing the prowess and reading about it, she fell for the idea of enchanting objects and manipulating mana through scribbles. As an [Elementalist], mana control was one of the specialties of class, hence, the idea of being a Scribe seemed perfect. 

For the period she was offline, Xue Yan went over to Sato's place where they borrowed his grandfather's dojo for training. Truthfully, the first time Xue Yan came over, she was filled with anxiety and apprehension. It was the first time she was visiting a stranger who happened to be a guy. While Sato wasn't really a stranger, he wasn't a friend either. When she came over, Alice welcomed her in with a kind attitude, like a lovely mother-in-law welcoming her daughter-in-law. Even the old man, Juro, gave Sato a side look as if congratulating him on bringing a girl over. Having lived most of her time with a cold attitude and dissociating herself away from others, Xue Yan felt awkward in all of this. Luckily for her, Sato brought her away for practice before everything had gotten extra weird.

With the triple lessons of in-game battle training, inscription practice and martial arts/fighting practice, Xue Yan turned out to be the busiest of the 7, followed closely by Sato who handled all her training sessions related to fighting.

After 2 days of intense grinding, the team of Fudo, Yato, Lu Zhen, Seiichi and Katsuo then confronted the Achiever. However, it took them till their 3rd try, in other words, 3 days(RT) before they passed the test.

"Whew. Even though its much weaker than that kobold king or whatever, its fighting experience and skill is greater." Lu Zhen sighed in awe as he recalled the past days of 'hell'.

The Achiever they faced wasn't the same swordsman Sato and Xue Yan faced but instead an axe wielder. According to Saimon, the two were on par with each other but his reason for changing the opponent was just because he felt like doing so.

While supposedly on par with the other one, its strength for this test wasn't, as there were 5 challengers instead of 2. 

With a higher level of strength, the difficulty of the test increased in kind to the point that it almost drove the 5 into despair. No matter what move they made, it was like the Axe-wielding Achiever could sense it. It would react immediately and counter, even with 5 players on its tail. This resulted in the team barely being able to make a hit and reduce the hit-count. If not for the level 9 Fudo and Lu Zhen, together with Sato adjusting their strategies offline, the team would have failed the test.

"How did they even pass this? I know it was only the two of them and so the test would drop in difficulty but still. The difficulty would correspond." Yato asked out. The two he was referring to were Sato and Xue Yan. They both went deeper into the hall, with Xue Yan staying at the library and Sato at the Blacksmith Area.

"It's Sato we are talking about. He was the one who helped us with this so why wouldn't he be able to do the same for himself." Seiichi replied.

"Alright you two. Now we have official access, let's head in and check this pace out." Fudo said before Yato could speak.

Since they never had official access before, the 5 were only limited to the hall that held the Achievers. But now that they had finally succeeded in passing the test, they were granted official entry into the hall by Saimon, enabling them to visit the library and the other quarters in the building.

.  .  .

.  .  .

.  .  .

*Clang* *Clang*

In a large room somewhere within the central tower, aka the Great Hall of Grey Chaplains, Sato was hammering constantly at a flat piece of metal. It was till far from completion as Sato was still hammering it to shape, so the identity of the object was unknown. However, from a single glance, one would notice that the metal was too big to be a sword but seemed just right for a chest-plate or a shield.

[[System notification : You have new mail]

"Oh?" Sato slowed down his hammering but didn't halt them.

Opening the mail, Sato saw that it came from Fudo, informing him of their victory in the test.

'They've passed? Well, that's good.' Sato sighed as he resumed hammering the metal at his previous pace.

"This should be the 5th day. Once I'm done with all of this, it will be time to take that test." Sato said out loud as he recalled Saimon's proposal.

"I just hope this will be successful." Sato stared at the metal sheet being hammered.

What Sato was trying to produce was an armour and not any ordinary one, but one at the Upper tier Mortal rank!