My Joker System: From Low Mana Trash to the Mightiest Wizard!
Chapter 58: Manaforge Initiate Competition Preliminaries (3)

Chapter 58: Manaforge Initiate Competition Preliminaries (3)

"M-M-Mastercraft, you say?!" roared a short, scholarly old man with a balding forehead. "I swear, Edwin, if you’re lying..."

"Y-Yes, Chief! W-We’ve double-checked multiple times with different types of appraisal devices, yet the results were the same!" replied Edwin, the middle-aged appraiser responsible for Hal’s Flame Origin Earrings.

"Then what are you waiting for?! Bring me the artifacts, then!"

It was forbidden to take any artifact out of the official appraisal rooms without permission from the Chief Appraiser of the competition.

So, the bespectacled, middle-aged appraiser could only call his assistant, instructing him to bring the Flame Origin pair instead.

A huffing and puffing young man arrived a few minutes later, two slightly glowing vermillion earrings in hand.

"T-Two?"

The Chief Appraiser’s initial reaction was the same with Edwin, clearing his throat after a few awkward moments before picking one up.

There didn’t seem to be anything particular with the aesthetics of the Flame Origin Earrings.

Even the cores were round and plain.

’This...is mastercraft-grade...?’

The Chief Appraiser frowned at the rather crude appearance of the earring, finding it hard to believe that it had reached the Mastercraft grade without benefiting from the additional appraisal bonus granted by aesthetics.

Even some Master Arcanists relied on the slight push that appearance provided to cross the line between Superior and Mastercraft grade, though of course on higher rarity artifacts.

Appearance was, after all, one of the three appraisal criteria programmed into the devices.

Although it held the last spot in terms of importance, it could still give a decent boost to an artifact’s perceived quality, allowing its price to increase significantly, even if the only difference was the shape of the core.

...The Chief Appraiser eagerly grabbed the only appraisal device on his desk, ordering Edwin’s assistant to fetch the five other types.

The balding old man was simply dying to see for himself whether his subordinate was telling the truth or not.

A mastercraft-grade artifact at the preliminaries of a rookie competition?

They were either in the presence of a monstrous genius or a filthy cheater.

Placing one of the Flame Origin Earrings atop the appraisal device, the same results that Edwin saw appeared, allowing the slightly nervous subordinate to breathe a sigh of relief.

The feat of crafting a Mastercraft-grade artifact was simply that difficult to believe, making the bespectacled appraiser question his own report despite having seen the results himself and confirmed them numerous times.

"M-Mastercraft-grade indeed..." muttered the Chief Appraiser in disbelief.

The old man tried restarting the device numerous times but the results were the same.

Edwin’s subordinate still hadn’t arrived, so the Chief remembered that there was still another earring.

It looked identical to the first one...

The bald old man replaced the earring on the device with the second one, utterly flabbergasted that both were of the Mastercraft grade.

"Joker?" the chief mumbled, turning to Edwin the next moment. "Do we have any information regarding this kid, Edwin?"

"N-No, sir," the middle-aged appraiser responded. "As you know, the Imperial Arcanist Guild keeps a tight and secure hold on the personal information of the true Arcanists behind the aliases, so aside from his alias ’Joker’ and his jester mask, no other information is available..."

The old man fell silent.

Even he, who was a prominent appraiser in the empire, wouldn’t dare force the issue of knowing who Joker was.

"Since you came to report this to me, I assume you’ve already checked whether he was cheating or not?"

"Yes, ch–"

Their conversation was forcefully halted by the arrival of Edwin’s subordinate, and perhaps for the best.

They shall resume it later.

"You’re dismissed." the Chief Appraiser ordered the young man.

The old man continued testing both earrings in the other appraisal devices brought by the subordinate, but the results remained the same, meaning that they were indeed in the presence of a monstrous genius.

After confirming that the artifacts were indeed mastercraft-grade using all six types of devices, the chief turned to Edwin with a serious frown.

"I know it’s forbidden to go into the details, as I’m merely here to oversee the competition, so just confirm one thing for me. The young man made the artifact himself, right?"

"Y-Yes, chief, that is correct..."

The next moment, the balding old man fell silent, then suddenly erupted.

"Hahaha! Good, good! The empire is in good hands..."

They, the old ones, knew the true extent of the Fellkin threat, and things weren’t as stable as the Imperium made them seem.

The rise of that Flame Magna Prospect, along with this Arcanist Joker, was very much needed.

It seemed the prophecy was correct.

Geniuses of their race would rise as the species’ final resistance, though it was up to fate whether they would survive or be snuffed out like the elves and the dragonkin.

Humans were the weakest of the three races that inhabited the world of Arcovar.

Yet, strangely, they had survived the longest, even after the strongest of the dragonkin were slain by the Fellkin.

***

Time passed, and the appraisal period of hundreds of earring artifacts came to an end.

Only one hundred out of the registered 756 would be able to advance to the main event, where fifty seeded individuals, all apprentices of renowned Master Arcanists, awaited.

The event would have gathered more eyes had the disciples of the Grandmasters joined.

Unfortunately, such talented individuals did not need the meager rewards the competition offered or the opportunity to make names for themselves, as their illustrious reputations had already been set in stone the moment they became students of the few Grandmasters that existed in the Imperium.

Even the apprentices of the masters barely do.

Most simply joined to compare themselves with their rivals.

Hal yawned, arms crossed over his chest as he waited for the results without a hint of nervousness.

He was extremely confident that he would be among the hundred.

The door soon opened, and a balding old man entered with a journal listing the Novice Arcanists who would move on to the main event.

"I shall now announce the one hundred novices who made it to the main event. Do note that the order in which we call the passers isn’t arranged in any sort of sequence or rankings. There are only those who passed and those who didn’t."

This was, of course, untrue.

The order of announcement followed the rankings, from 100th place to 1st.

This last bit of rule was merely a courtesy added by the old man in an attempt to help the one who ranked first keep his secrets.

After all, the young man wouldn’t be wearing a mask and using an alias otherwise.

Without delay, the Chief Appraiser began calling the names of those who passed.

"Kia Malifa."

"Michael Jackstone."

"Ariana Venti."

"The Undertaker"

...

The old man had gone through more than half the list in just a minute, and yet Hal still hadn’t heard his alias called.

His heart began to race.

’No, there’s no way I’m not included in the list...’ he assured himself.

A dozen more names were called, and he was still not among them.

There were only eighteen more slots...

"Chicken Breast Enjoyer."

"Grus Wain."

"Roth Wyler"

...

Hal’s heart raced faster and faster as more names and aliases that were not his were called.

Now, only three slots were left.

"Dig Bick."

Two...

"Elron Porter."

’There’s just no f*cking way I didn–’

"Joker."