the audience was stunned by the robot, usually, cultivators would have puppets, but this one didn't give an iota of spiritual energy it was clearly technological
Angus was stunned too, but he had weapons to judge so he walked to the cart and concentrated, then while in front of the weapons asked "can I touch them?"
Elijah responded "sure you can use any method you know to identify them"
Angus inspected the first one, a sword, and after touching and looking at it said " mid-third stage"
Elijah said "correct"
the atmosphere was becoming heavier, than Angus looking at the knife next to the sword said " peak first stage"
Elijah said "incorrect, it was low second stage"
Angus nodded and continued while he was concentrating he looked like another person
in the end, he guessed 5 out of 9 right, he was in the clear, but he still wanted his last shot, then looking at the cart, he realized that there wasn't a tenth weapon on the cart, so he looked at the robot and touched it, then he said "this is a technological weapon, just by looking at it I'm going to say low third stage"
before Elijah could talk Phoebe said "indeed, maru it's a low third stage weapon capable of both long-distance and close quarter combat, congratulation 6 out of 10"
Elijah said "exactly, you passed, and you can sit here and wait for the next round while watching the competition, or go back to rest"
Angus said "I'll watch"
not long after marguerite arrived and she also fixed the sword at 100% and gave a similar answer as Angus, then she guessed 7 out of 10 right, but guessed the maru wrongly
the third was Reginald who had completed just after marguerite but had to wait to go up anyway until she finished, he also made it 100% and gave another answer making the same point as the other two then guessed 9 out of 10 leaving the maru without judging, saying "this isn't a weapon it's just a toy of the weakling civilization"
his answer was frowned upon by the judges, who were impressed by maru being in the third stage because it was made of what they deemed worthless metals, and also by Sophia and Phoebe who marked the boy as an idiot for underestimating something that could easily kill him, and even by the audience who heard before that it was a low third stage weapon
but even worst, by Tickles that was controlling the maru remotely by leaving a small part of himself inside it, someone had disrespected his master creation, if he could, he would have already shot him, and this wasn't even the worst, because Daniel and Tickles shared their memories, so Daniel who was happily sleeping, woke up and a scene appeared in his mind, he would remember this person name, but told tickles not to intervene and went back to sleep
of the 112 contestants after 1 hour, 8 failed to make the ring in time, 20 made it less than 1 cubic meter, and 2 somehow managed to make the ring explode
of the remaining 72 after two hours, 2 tried to deliver a badly made repair, 30 tried to sharpen the sword or had done something trying to go beyond, so they got sacked by the judges, and 35 failed to guess 5 out of 10 weapons right
the cruel elimination round ended with the shy boy Angus, the mighty marguerite, the despised Reginald, the minimal achiever Keiop who passed the minimum requirements without adding anything, and the mysterious Sam carter who made a perfectly 1 mt ring, a 100% sword, and guessed 10 out of 10, but did it in the maximum time allowed
after the last contestant finished, Elijah said "the first round gutted the participants, it was so difficult not even 10 of them remained, but we expected it, the admiral doesn't kid around, she made it hard to find the best, and here they are, ready for the second round"
Elijah smiled and continued "in the second round, the guests and judges will make questions, who answers them correctly wins 1 point for each question, that they can add to the 10 basic points for the third round, but there's a catch, risk and reward go hand in hand, so if the question is answered wrongly one point get taken, are you guys and gals ready?"
they nodded, so Elijah said "let's start then"
the 5 teens were in front of the judges and the first to ask a question was akela that made a small boat appear and asked "who can tell me what's broken on this boat, take your time to look at it"
Sam raised her hand, akela nodded and sam said "nothing"
Akela said "correct" astonishing many people
Elijah said "11 points for sam, let's go to the next question"
Gruff looked at them evilly, then said "if I use blood moon ore, icy jade, and thunderous beast bones to craft an axe what would the results be based on those materials"
this time no one raised their hands, they were thinking, then Reginald raised it and after Gruff nodded said " a weapon with a bleeding and slow effect"
Gruff said "wrong, does anybody know the answer?" while smiling at Akela like he won something
Keiop raised his hand, and after Gruff nodded said "an explosion?" in an uncertain tone
Gruff laughed and said "correct answer kid blood moon ore and thunderous beast bones don't go together"
Reginald was furious, the question was a trick, he knew what they did separately, but not together, still, he had to keep it cool in front of these mighty figures
Elijah said "we have Sam and Keiop with 11, marguerite and Angus with 10, and Reginald with 9 points, next question"
Sophia was holding a book with a translucent sheen, by the distance it seemed to be made of jello but the cover was semi-rigid and said "who can tell me what this book cover is made of?"
no one answered the question, because they had absolutely no idea what that was, Akela and Patrik neither could tell, but Gruff was smiling knowing what that was
after 15 minutes she had no choice and said "maybe I made it too difficult, this was made from an astral whale gift, a half solidified piece of her baby fins" said Sophia shocking billions of people without realizing it, then she put away the book and took another object "can anyone tell me what this book holder is made of?" said Sophia the book holder looked like it was made by thousands of tiny feathers, trying to be one
again everybody stayed quiet and Akela was smiling instead of Gruff who frowned
Akela felt bad for the kids, she thought she and Gruff were bad, but this woman was just destroying their will's, so she said "it's made of a sunny duck, summer feathers, these questions are too hard for this juniors, try to ask something simpler please, there are less than a hundred people who saw a sunny duck on verulus"
Sophia took out a rough-looking dagger and said "I didn't think about it, then I have the perfect thing this will be the real question, this dagger it's a third stage weapon I had all my life, since the level it's low someone should recognize what it's made of"
this time no one was smiling and no one was talking because not even the experts could say what the dagger was made of
Phoebe shook her head and said "teacher think about your age, and ask a question possible to answer" she knew what that was, a third stage weapon made with the bones of a beast that was extinct more than 70000 years ago
Sophia was a little embarrassed, she was too out of touch with today's cultivators, and said "wait I have other stuff, this one, this one will do just fine" said Sophia taking out a small transparent scaly dog statue, then continued saying "there's no way no one knows what this is made of, it's just 3 months old"
indeed the judges knew but they were still astounded by the way it was made and Akela couldn't help but exclaim "it must have been carved by a master look at those lines, I never saw something like that" Gruff nodded and said "definitely, only a master can carve like this, the dog seems almost alive"
while everyone was admiring it marguerite raised her hand and Sophia nodded, then said "is it a carved diamond"
Sophia nodded and said "correct it is a diamond but it was made like this not carved"
"made" said Akela looking at Gruff
"made" said Gruff nodding to her,
then both looked at Patrik who said "made" nodding
they wanted to ask but had to think about their reputations in front of billions of people, so they kept the questions to themselves
Elijah said "Sam, Keiop, and Marguerite are at 11 points, Angus is at 10, and Reginald at 9 next question"
phoebe took out the piece of mesh and said "what is this?"
everyone was thrown off guard by the shape, but the two experts soon understood what that was, even if they were shocked because of the strange shape, they just thought she did it on purpose to throw the juniors off their game, in the meantime, Phoebe was worried no one could answer, like with Sophia
the five of them looked at the thing then looked at Akela that went to their rescue before but she shook her head, they were alone, but Phoebe caught that and said after a sigh "don't think about the shape look at the material" while thinking "just one person that knows it's enough so come on"
Reginald was already depressed about being the last, he was sure he saw something similar, but why was it holding that shape, what he saw was coarse dust, like sand, not something that could be made into a mesh
while Reginald was thinking Angus raised his hand and after Phoebe nodded he said "raising rain dust?" in a very uncertain and meek way
Phoebe asked "are you asking or answering" to mask her ignorance
Akela said "there's no need to scare the kid, that answer it's wrong"
Angus was sad, but that was the same answer Reginald was about to give so he was relieved but still didn't show it outside
Phoebe was also relieved since Akela knew, she could use it to her advantage, and no one will know the truth
than sam raised her hand and when Phoebe nodded said "it's anchor sand"
Phoebe looked at her with a perfectly executed fake astonished gasp, and Gruff said "I'm surprised this junior knows what that is, I'll make a question tied to it, where do we refiner use it?"
phoebe was surprised that is not what anchor sand usually looks like, but gruff said it and Akela not correcting him confirmed, she was lucky after all she asked without knowing
marguerite immediately raised her hand and said "we don't, it's the stuff that makes the floating islands float, if we take it out, the island would fall from the sky"
gruff shook his head and said "it's only half correct, some islands got destroyed during wars, or heated fights, so it's true we don't but not because the island would fall but because we don't have a use for it, after the island falls it loses what makes it special and becomes an ornament, or collectible, I'll not give you points, but won't take them either"
the questions continued but Phoebe stopped paying attention, now she had her answer and a pretty good idea of whom will she choose for her unit, before she realized the second round finished and the final count was 13 for sam 12 for marguerite and Angus, 11 for Keiop and 10 for Reginald who never managed to climb back up