127 Evaluation

Wallace started to design his automaton. He already planned to make it resemble like a Mech Frame he had seen once in earth. Apparently, the Mech Frame design for space was not that suitable for this competition, although it can still be used.

The Mech Frame he had seen before was pale green-blue in color. It was in the shape of centaur and can wield spears, which can be used for devastating charges together with a shield for maximum protection.

"It's better this way...

He was aware that mobility will be important for the next battle, so he modified it's legs so it could adapt to any terrain.

As long as the automaton could move anywhere, even though it wasn't too quick, it would be enough for him.

Wallace will instead be focusing on the weapon that would be attached physically on his automaton.

No one planned to create a detachable weapon for their own creation, like wielding removable swords, shields, guns, staff, and spears. It wouldn't be a good idea if in case it was dropped by any sudden explosions or movements. A lot of things could happen in an uncontrolled battlefield. After all, these automaton would be fighting on their own later.

Wallace equipped the centaur-like automaton with two black long barrel. Obviously, it was for long ranged attacks and the audience admired his design a bit.

It was still incomplete so they couldn't determine if it was truly a good design as they could see and compare to the other's automaton as well. Aside from that, it has to have some kind of melee skills as well. Relying only with ballistic skills, although very important, will be difficult. It must include some other Magic Spells for cover or even close combat skills of the automaton, this will depend on the Mana Technician's preference.

They were not familiar with Wallace so they could only guess. After a quick look in his work, they changed their view as they tried to evaluate the other's design and even tried guessing the final results of these automatons.

***

"It seems that Maja has adopted a humanoid automaton. For Montego, I couldn't really say. The figure they adopted seems to be gorillas to me... I really thought that they were creating a humanoid one at first. But this arm gave it all."

"Zairus and Virgan on the other hand, created a mixed designs of human and animals. It looks very interesting."

"I wonder about their fighting capabilities. Well, in real life battles, Strength Type Automatons were most popular companions for the magicians. After all, most Magicians focus on their firepower, so they needed a form of protection near them."

"That's the popular combat method in Maja in their magicians battalion. A single magician there could even have 2 or 3 automaton as a guard."

"But those aren't common as well. Automatons are expensive after all. I believe it wasn't always like that..."

The audience were discussing the contestants decisions in their designs. Only half of the audience was left watching the event compared on this morning's combat magician's event. These remaining people watching were those highly interested either in Mana Artifacts, building automation, a fan of a contestants or just waiting for the automaton's battle later on. Some were even seen sleeping.

Of course, the announcers didn't fail to give their own analysis tirelessly. Especially now that more than two hours had past, they really did their best to keep some of the audience alive.

"We are now reaching the end of forging round. Only 20 minutes was left."

"Everyone of them was almost done. All the design of their automaton was already clear to see. Let's see... the biggest automaton were those from our home team, reaching 3 meters in height." The female announcer said. She was looking forwards on their teams performance so she kept note of anything that seems to differ from their Montego's team to other countries.

"Look at the students from Virgan. Aside from automaton's different bodies, all their automatons have wings?" The other announcer said as he was seemingly attracted at the beauty of those wings. It exudes a majestic aura on their automaton.

"Those wings isn't just for design, it looks more like a blade to me. Other teams doesn't look like they have means of propulsion on their creations but I believe it was covered by magic. No need for technological propulsion if magic could take over on it."

It is just like what she said. The female announcer was well-versed in artifact forging. She was aware that most of the automatons was capable of flight not because of wings or visible thrusters or propulsion, but because she had watched them create their magic structure. As a fellow Magic Engineer, she could easily see other magicians selecting magic structure stones that was mostly used for short-term flights.

"They all have very interesting designs. I'm looking forward on their performance. I hope they wouldn't be just empty shell."

"That will surely be the case. I believe that we'll see an even more exciting battle later on." The announcer finally said as they all waited for the participants to complete their finishing touches on their automatons.

***

The 20 minutes that was left had quickly passed as five certified Magic Engineers took the stage to evaluate the automatons.

Aside from it's combat statistics, some information will be revealed about the automaton through their appraisal. These engineers will grade the automaton and evaluate its potential ability.

Apparently, although the Arcane Artificers are at the same level of Adept Mage, they couldn't easily be seen as they were rarer than an Adept. But these Magic Engineers present although doesn't have an Arcane Link, possesses Mana Artifacts capable of helping them in appraisal process.

"Our five Magic Engineers led by Engr. Jackson would take at least an hour to evaluate the automatons. So it would be time for everyone to take a break while they review these creations. Especially our participants, they were surely tired after this. Then later on, we'll hear the rules for the Battle Event..." The female announcer said and noticed a lot of people had went out, either for a break or going back home. There's really not many people interested watching these engineers evaluate each of the automatons.

During this time, it was also a break for the two announcers. The two announcers was now having a tea that was good for their throat. They have been talking almost non-stop during the competition so they have to take care of themselves.

"Nina, what do you think about these mana technicians?"

"They surely are bunch of incompetent fools. Tsk, that's why Artifact Forging is not flourishing. Are you not feeling the same, Schneizel?"

Nina said as she shook her head thinking about the participant's choice of build.

"Haha! Just like what I thought. I really admire how you can still praise them a while ago. Sadly, what you said was the truth but I'm not expecting these newbies to perform great anyway." Schneizel said as he was truly not expecting much on those 12 participants.

"Heh, that's why up until now, there's still not much of a progress in the 6th generation Mana Artifacts."

"Don't think about it too much, our aim here is just to recruit someone we've found capable and if we are unable to, there's no consequences as well. We can just try next time." Schneizel smiled as he took a sip of his tea. Truthfully, he found his job really tiring. Nina specializes in both Combat and Artifact Forging and Shneizel was a previous Adept Mage. Due to his injuries, he could no longer use his Arcane Link and was then demoted in his rank. Now, he was assigned to recruit people in their organization.

"I just hope that they'll give us a surprise."

"Haaa~ Not a single one of them used 'that' method. It means that they have very shallow understanding in Artifact Forging. What would you expect here?"

"Don't worry I believe that some of them will still give us a surprise. We can still probably select those who performed good and try to recruit them. It's still not too late to teach them." Schneizel commented. Although, his rank was lowered, his intuition about those dangerous automaton was something he couldn't just ignore.

***

It was now time to reveal the evaluation of the five engineers. A list of information about the automaton was shown to people.

[ Zairus ]

[ Red-Eyed War Beast: Designed by Wallace Ravencroft. A four-legged beast with a high-powered fire cannon as a main weapon. Tornado Lance as secondary weapon and hidden fire-inclined Mana Guns. Grade 6/10]

[ Sword Slave: Designed by Jun Richardson. A half-man and half-praying mantis with eight Mana Blades as main weapon. Mystic Eyes as secondary weapon. Grade 8/10]

[ Vital Thorn: Designed by Sheryl Vermont. A werewolf with thorny scales armor. Possessed Fire and Ice Claws. Grade 7/10]

A long list of information appeared but Wallace first found the information that was for his team. The information was so limited and was only for the audience to have a general idea for the automatons.

The Magic Structure wasn't even evaluated deeply so it would still be a surprise later during the fight.

The Grade that the engineers provided was from 1 to 10 and number 1 being the weakest. This is how they grade the potential ability of the automaton.

Wallace smiled and shook his head upon seeing the results. It all comes down when their automaton was tested in battle.

The grades here was only superficial for him.