"We will now call on Merlin, the legendary adventurer and leader of Red Maelstrom to judge the second round," the host said.
Merlin was an older man with a long grey beard and tattoos of strange symbols on his hands.
He went to each pair of bladesmiths, checking the strength of the enchantments and the number of defensive enchantments on their forged piece before declaring the winners.
Again, everything was going fine until he got to Remus.
"Check attributes," he said to Remus's armour.
<\Skill Activated: Check! />
His eyes went wide with surprise as he read the sheer number of ridiculously strong enchantments.
"If you don't seek me out after this, I will come find you," he said to Remus.
After four rounds, the competition whittled down the number of contestants until there were only two: Remus and a bladesmith called Nikola.
The final two tests were for skill enchantments and magical beasts taming.
Remus created a bow that couldn't miss for the skill enchantment portion and a collar that could enslave any beast including a troll.
Once the results were examined by the judges, a winner was declared.
"The unanimous winner and Forge Master for this year is Remus Acquitane of the Southlands!"
The crowd cheered and the VIPs amongst them applauded Remus's undoubted skill.
He collected his reward and had to sneak past adoring fans back to DiNolfo's shop but that's when tragedy struck.
There was ash and smoke where the shop was supposed to be.
"Someone burnt down my shop," DiNolfo said sadly. "Five generations of blood, sweat and tears, gone in five minutes."
"Who could've done this?" Remus asked.
They both looked around at the growing number of spectators when Remus noticed Albert in the crowd with a smug grin on his face.
"Could it be that bastard?" DiNolfo asked.
"Definitely, but we don't have any proof," Remus replied. "Don't worry I have a better idea. This could end up being good for us."
"How could this be good for us?"
DiNolfo asked.
"This means that we can rebuild however we want," Remus said. "I already thought that your shop was going to be too small."
Under Remus's instructions, Annabelle, his sister, registered a new business called the 'Star Forge' and purchased 40,000 units of land outside the City for it to be built. She also put up adverts declaring that in 3 days time, Remus Acquitane, the forge master would be opening up his very own forge outside the city and holding a grand opening ceremony.
The advert spread throughout the city as every guild, merchant and collector salivated at the prospect of getting their hands on the first works of the newly crowned Forge Master.
Remus made his way to his newly purchased property Northwest of the City of Oldtown just south of Ibdan, the other major Midland City, to survey the area. Properties within the city had become too expensive and space constrained so having a large area to accommodate his vision would be important.
He was accompanied by Andrea, Gregory, DiNolfo and Annabelle.
Annabelle walked very cautiously, jumping at every strange noise she heard.
"Isn't this place known for having a lot of Spriggans and bears?" Annabelle asked.
"I haven't been on a hunt in a while," Andrea said. "Spriggans and Bears will have to do for now."
"I agree, it's a good chance to test our skills," Gregory said.
"I didn't know anything about that?" Remus said. "Maybe that's why it was so cheap. We will have to deal with the monsters so that this area is as safe as possible for people to do business. I can't have bears mauling my potential customers."
<\Skill Activated: Summon Automatons! />
Remus pulled out his Stone Guardian, Wind Archer and Scorch Swordsman.
The Automatons, led by Andrea and Gregory went in search for any beast that unfortunately wandered to their location while Remus focused on building the perfect resort.