The reason professor Mack had said that secret so openly was because it was too late for any of them to go back to the array inscribing process and if someone was foolish enough to do so they wouldn't finish before time.
"We can't decide without seeing the others, but you will surely get bonus points for being the first to complete a perfectly functioning sword." Professor Tacitus said to Blake.
'Patience isn't one of my virtues, but if this is what I get for being 1st so be it.' Blake thought as he took a seat and waited.
[I guess we overdid it…] The system chuckled.
The exams accounted for more than half of the semester's points so he couldn't take any chances. If he was to flop at this time of the semester it would have been better, he didn't try at all.
After waiting for 30 minutes more, Luciano submitted his work just as expected. He had inscribed the weight-lightening array and the ripple array that cause a molecular level distortion to objects making it easier for the weapon to pierce the target.
Just like Blake, professor Tacitus had the same smile on his face as he praised Luciano's work, but an hour later when the others were getting their works inspected contempt was written all over his face.
"They are submitting 1 hour 30 minutes later after the rank 1 had submitted, 1hr for Luciano, 40 minutes from Castiel, 30 minutes from Brian. How can they be so incompetent…" Professor Tacitus' words were heard by everyone in the forge.
Professor Mack didn't see it in that way, rather he saw that Blake, Lucian, Castiel, and Brian were more talented in forgemastering.
After both Professors had a conversation between themselves and ranked the weapons, they finally made the announcements everyone had been looking forward to.
"Before I start, I will like to tell those below the 1st five to not get their hopes high because I won't be announcing your positions. So, if you don't hear your name from this list and you still want to know about your puny scores you can go check your names in the general list."
His words made the hearts of most students burn in rage, but knowing that the professor was looking out for those that reacted to his taunts they could only hold it in and keep a poker expression.
"The points awarded will be based on these 5 categories; cutting ability, thrusting ability, guarding capacity, speed, and durability, but that will be based on the type of sword. A thousand points have been allocated to each category so, if you score 9 points in durability you will get 900 points and so on."
"Starting from 5th position, Haldor. A great sword with 8 points awarded to cutting ability, 6 points for its thrusting ability, 9 points for its guarding capacity, 6 for speed, and 9 for durability. That totals 38/50, that means 3800 points."
[The more I see his actions, the more I believe he is a beast boy.] The system couldn't help but shake its 'head'. From the points awarded to the thrusting ability and speed of the sword, the system saw Haldor as a primitive beast that thought that brute force could solve everything.
"4th position, Castiel. A… sword with 9 points awarded to cutting ability, 7 points for its thrusting ability, 8 points for its guarding capacity, 9 for speed, and 8 for durability. That totals 41/50, that means 4100 points." Professor Tacitus had no idea of what type of sword it was but as long as it was effective there was no problem grading it.
The sword Castiel had forgemastered was a replica of the Jian sword that was gifted to him by his great grandfather Chang Nakamura. The Jian is a double-edged sword that comes from a family of small ancient arms, it was also ornamental, combining both elegance and lethal power.
"3rd position, Brian. A Claymore with 9 points awarded to cutting ability, 8 points for its thrusting ability, 9 points for its guarding capacity, 9 for speed, and 8 for durability. That totals 43/50, that means 4300 points."
'Me?' Brian was shocked that he was above Castiel. Castiel awakened the fire element and that would surely give him an edge when purifying the pores and it also gave him more perception to heat energy making it easier to monitor the heat of the metal.
After the 3rd position had been announced, they didn't need a diviner to tell them that the struggle for the 1st position was between Blake and Luciano.
"2nd position… Luciano." Hearing Luciano's position most nobles in the class shook their head in disappointment. Although they weren't close to him he was still a noble and it was better than a commoner besting them for the umpteenth time.
"An Estoc with 9 points awarded to cutting ability, 10 points for its thrusting ability, 9 points for its guarding capacity, 10 for speed, and 9 for durability. That totals 47/50, that means 4700 points."
"And finally first position goes to Blake. A Katana with 10 points awarded to cutting ability, 9 points for its thrusting ability, 10 points for its guarding capacity, 10 for speed, and 9 for durability. That totals 48/50, that means 4800 points and since he was the first to submit he gets an extra 1 thousand points."
'Although everyone knows that the 1 point difference between us is quite large, I have to say that was a frigging close one.' Blake let out a sigh of relief as he waited for the final announcement.
Since it was a joint exam, when Professor Tacitus was done it was professor Mack's turn to announce the top for the array mastery section of the exam. The points awarded were based on how perfectly the arrays were inscribed and the combination of arrays with the kind of weapon.
Brian came in third 4 points going to array perfection, while 5 points went to array combination. He had inscribed the weight-lightening array because of the claymore's weight and the razor array to increase the claymore's cutting power, earning himself 45/50 which was 4500 points.
(AN: Everything is over 5 thousand points and since there are only 2 categories to judge, it is the initial score multiplied by 5 then by a thousand.)
Unlike Brian who had gotten 4/5 in the array perfection category, Blake and Luciano had gotten perfect scores. With the system and mostly his hard work, Blake was able to perfectly draw an array even if he was woken up from sleep and it was the same for Luciano.
"You may be asking why am I not announcing it in an ascending order, but the reason which most of you have guessed already is that, it is a draw." The forge quickly became rowdy as the students couldn't help but talk about such a controversial issue.
Some believed that Professor Mack was partial and when he saw that his favorite student was about to be beaten he had to call it a draw since he would be discovered if he took him above Luciano. Another group didn't care if they were partial or not, all they wanted was for Blake to be the 1st again but since he was to share the position with someone it was acceptable.
"Silence!" As the controller of the forge, Professor Tacitus's voice reverberated all around the forge causing all the students to shut up and listen.
"The reason is that Blake's weight-lightening and mana dispersion array combination makes the katana a natural mage killer. As for Luciano's weight-lightening and ripple, array makes the Estoc an excellent armor buster and since I am not partial I decided to call it a draw." Professor Mack said with his signature smile.
Those in the first group of students could only mind snort at the professor's words and remain because even in a thousand years to come their opinions wouldn't matter.
'Calling it a draw makes life easier and most importantly saves a lot of research time.' When he thought of his next task in his lab he was excited and couldn't wait for it to end
When the entire exercise was over it was already evening. A wide brimming smile was on his face as he walked out of the forge ten thousand points richer.
'There isn't much time to do anything. Guess I am forced to take a rest.'