[center][h1][color=orangered]Seishun Academy of Swords[/color][/h1][/center]

[color=orangered]"Hmph, you're finally coming around."[/color] A gruff voice said.

The voice belonged to a musclebound behemoth of a man, squatting on a wooden bench far too small for him. He was extremely muscular and covered in scars. If one could see his palms, they would see the roughness as a sign that he was truly a veteran swordsmith. In front of him stood a solitary cherry blossom tree. Petals danced in the wind as a much younger woman approached from behind. She wore a ceremonial kimono sort of loosely, and she was carrying a bundle of thick rope over her shoulder.

[color=thistle]"It's agreed to move on, then, principal?"[/color] She asked, putting the rope down.

[color=orangered]"Yup, but it's scared of me."[/color] The Principal replied, getting up and stretching. The tree shuddered, almost as if it was afraid of the loud cracks from the principal's joints. [color=orangered]"I'm not as good with younger spirits as you are, Kasumi, so you're going to have to handle the ceremony solo I'm afraid."[/color]

[color=thistle]"Hmmm…"[/color] She said, also taking the time to stretch.

She was nowhere near as muscled as the principal was but she was still considerably well built. She had short red white tied back in a ponytail, and even though she was relatively standard in terms of height, the principal stood a good 2 heads taller than her.

[color=thistle]"I guess I'm alright with that,"[/color] She replied. [color=thistle]"I [i]am[/i] this school's spiritist expert, if they need to ask something it'll be better if they ask me directly."[/color]

[color=orangered]"I'll leave it to you then,"[/color] The principal said, nodding once. [color=orangered]"I'll handle the rest of the preparations."[/color]

As principal of the Seishun Academy of Swords, he was the one who had the final word when it came to the weekly challenges. There was no penalty for not participating in a challenge, as the academy didn't really enforce a strict curriculum. Students enrolled were free to leave the school any time, the only condition being not to come back until they were a master swordsmith in their own right.

But for this challenge in particular, the students who chose not to participate would be missing out on a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, to create the sword Seishun Academy's god was going to reside in. Even in his long history of smithing, he had been requested for a job of this kind of calibre only a handful of times, although the difficulty for this one was not significantly high like the other ones had been.

He was curious to see which of the students would claim the top spot, but he would soon see anyway.
[hr]
[center][h2][color=yellow]NEW! - Challenge #1: Creating a God Sword[/color][/h2][/center]
There is a certain tree in Seishun Academy that has been around for something close to a century. It used to bloom beautiful cherry blossoms year-round but only when there were very few people to see it. Very few students knew the real reason the Sakura tree had lasted for so long; but with the announcement of this new challenge issued to the entire student body, everyone had found out the true reason for the tree's strange nature.

The Sakura Tree was hosting a God. Not a very powerful or old one by any means, but still [i]a[/i] god all the same. When this fact had been initially found out, there were plans to seal off access to the tree, but the God itself expressed that it wanted to see how the world was. Time passed, many faces came and went, but now the tree was dying. It couldn't hold the power of a god forever, and the principal has finally managed to convince it to move hosts.

This challenge is a schoolwide challenge aimed at the best swordsmiths to create a God Sword for the God to reside in. The winner of the challenge will be decided by the God itself as well as Kasumi, the spiritual realm instructor.

The challenge will begin with all of the students standing in front of the tree which has been ritually prepared for the ceremony, complete with an altar in front ready to accept a sword. A stockpile of metals to be used is also there. The only materials that can be used are the ones from the stockpile as part of the challenge.

The list of metals are as follows:
[list]
[*][color=darkslategray]Iron[/color] - [s]30 units[/s]    13
[*][color=darkolivegreen]Copper[/color] - [s]30 units[/s]    17
[*][color=dimgray]Steel[/color] - [s]30 units[/s]    8

[*][color=darkgoldenrod]Bronze[/color] - [s]20 units[/s]    8
[*][color=gold]Gold[/color] - [s]20 units[/s]    7
[*][color=forestgreen]Tamahagane[/color](NEW!) - [s]20 units[/s]    1

[*][color=aquamarine]Mithril[/color] - [s]15 units[/s]     4
[*][color=black]Black Steel[/color] - [s]15 units[/s]    0
[/list]

Materials are first in, best dressed. There are obviously more materials for all the students undertaking the challenge but for game purposes these are the only ones you can take.

The Winner of the Challenge is given the right to be able to talk to the God on occasion. Even though it won't be able to directly intervene with anything, it is a good informant that has been gathering information on Seishun Academy for almost a century. The God will appear only to the person who smithed the God Sword unless there is some kind of emergency.
[/list]
[hr]
[center][h2]Sword Crafting(NEW!)[/h2][/center]
In order to create a sword, [u]10 units[/u] of combined material must be used in order to forge the blade. Other metallic parts such as the handle can be included in the 10 unit cost depending. Embellishments such as gold trim or chains and whatnot won't usually even take up one unit of material but still need to be mentioned as taking something.

Creating a scabbard takes [u]5 units[/u] of any particular material which includes its embellishments, depending on how overboard you want to go with the decorations.

For the purposes of this challenge, a fitting scabbard is required to create a complete sword. The completed sword won't have to be particularly practical, as a god can fit inside any real medium. The only reason it really has to vacate the tree is because the tree is a living object. Since swords are non-living and a fitting host, the God will most likely be able to fit inside any sword the students create.

Kasumi the instructor is there to judge whether or not the sword will be suitable for the god. The winner of the challenge will win the right to be able to speak with the god on a fairly regular basis. The god can provide a lot of information on the school, old forging techniques, monsters of the forest etc. being the household god of Seishun Academy.

There is an [u]8 post limit[/u] per person for this challenge. Students have 8 posts to set up, plan and begin the forging of the sword before time skips the rest of the process and the sword is completed. The post with the completed sword may or may not be included as part of the 8 posts. Banter time and asking the instructor for advice will also be counted as a post. We are basically skipping the introductions, unfortunately. We're jumping straight into it essentially, but if you can manage to fit in an introduction it's all fine really.

Each post should have a maximum of 2 forging elements before wrapping up, such as heating the forge and melting down the metals. You can talk as much as you would like during the post, however, do be reasonable about it. Banter will also be limited to about 2 actions per post but one action could potentially be a lengthy conversation which takes an hour, but do note going back and forth will take up a fair amount of posts.

Be comprehensive with your questions, and be exhaustive with your insults. Aim to get something with every line in order to maximize your time.
[hr]
[center][h2]TL;DR[/h2][/center]
Challenge #1 is God Sword creation. The Sakura Tree hosting Seishun's resident god is dying and a new vessel needs to be made. A God can choose any kind of host to manifest in so any kind of sword will do as long as it is a fitting sword for a god to reside in.

Materials are limited with a first in policy.

[u]New Features:[/u]
[list]
[*]New Technical;
            -Sword Crafting
            -God Swords
[*]New Material;
            -[color=forestgreen]Tamahagane[/color]
Tamahagane is created by placing iron sand in a clay furnace and adding charcoal during the forging process in order to give it hardness. To create a blade using Tamahagane is a complex process involving folding together several layers of metal to create a thin, but strong blade. Mostly suited for creating eastern style swords, its full potential is realized when creating a Katana or a Jian. When creating a Tamahagane sword, the most important component is its core. The edge can be made of different metals but the core must be Tamahagane as it doesn't make too good of an edge without its core.
[/list]

There is an 8 post time limit for the challenge which is subject to change. The number 8 is an experimental value because I'm not entirely sure how long we'll usually take for this yet. If needed, it can be increased.