NOVPUB"Hmm…?"
Rubbing his chin as he pondered over the question, Valyr briefly thought about the ten areas he could choose to tackle for the first round.
Of course, as he had already experienced what the first round was like thanks to his other identity, the young man had already come up with an answer to the organizer's question even before he asked it.
Weaponry, combat, and profession.
In his mind, the three areas more or less encapsulated what he truly excelled at, giving him the opportunity to remind everyone why Scho'doxa had paid attention to him back at the Rise to Prominence tournament.
However, with the possibility of being hit with a far more terrifying outcome from Erika the moment he excelled in these three areas, the young man decided to forgo the original choices he had in mind.
'What other areas do I excel at…?' thought Valyr to himself, closing his eyes for a bit as he skimmed through all of his memories thus far.
"…Ah."
Fortunately, it did not take him too long to finalize his answer.
"My first choice is magic," said the young man to the organizer, his words immediately eliciting a look of slight disbelief from a decent portion of the audience.
Though, just as they thought Valyr had misspoken, he instead doubled down on his response as he proceeded to list down his last two areas.
"For the second one… mentality."
"And for the last one… let's go with profession."
Ignoring the slightly odd look the organizer was giving him, Valyr gave the man a nod of confirmation, as if telling him that what he had heard wasn't wrong.
With that, it was only then did the audience paying attention to him finally accept reality, causing many of them to erupt into conversation once more, all of them discussing the areas he had just chosen.
"I… didn't hear wrongly, right? Magic, mentality, and profession?"
"…You didn't. But what is Ylvar doing? Is he trying to shoot himself in the foot with such choices?"
"Perhaps he felt bad for the other participants since his earlier actions had intimidated them. I guess this is his way of atoning for his mistakes?"
"If it is, then this is just a bit too far. As far as I've heard, Ylvar's specialties are the exact opposite of what he chose… except for profession."
"Yeah. He's definitely more suited for weaponry and combat, especially since he's the reason why the frontlines have an easier time standing their ground against the elves and the orcs."
"Well… there's always the possibility that he hasn't shown us everything he could do. Who knows? Perhaps his forte is actually in the realm of magic and mentality."
'I guess you could probably say that,' thought Valyr in response to the last statement he heard, inwardly chuckling in amusement.
Although the main reason why he'd chosen to veer off his original choices was Erika, it wasn't as if he had chosen to tackle magic and mentality for no reason.
Thanks to the combat style he'd cultivated, he could wield either his spear or his magic spells to an expert level. If anything, he was more than fine to only use one of them if he were forced to.
On the other hand, mentality was something Valyr chosen after further thought.
Then again, considering how much he'd gone through, and how much mental anguish he'd endured to get to where he was… wouldn't it be weirder if his mentality hadn't improved?
And thus, with Valyr not saying anything else after that, the organizer was left with no choice but to write down what the young man had told him, jotting down the three areas the former had chosen onto his tablet.
After that, the young man went ahead and left the formation, heading straight to the first of the three areas he'd chosen to tackle in his current identity.
'Magic.'
Having memorized the layout of the ten areas back when it was Ataraxia's turn, Valyr did not take too long to arrive at his first area, immediately being greeted by the attendant managing the area with a look of admiration.
"Azure Spear, right?" asked the attendant with a slightly excited tone, to which the young man nodded in response.
Feeling as if a king was giving him favorable attention at that moment, the attendant explained the mechanics of the magic area to Valyr in slightly more detail than when he did with Ataraxia.
Nevertheless, with him having already gone through the five tests beforehand, the extra detail the attendant gave him wasn't really all that useful.
But of course, seeing as how the man was going out of the way to give him extra tips, Valyr sincerely thanked the man for his time, causing the latter to jump out of immense joy as the former proceeded to go through the tests one by one.
Unsurprisingly, as the creator of Prime Azure Energy, the tests that he had to go were pretty much a walk in the park for the young man.
Capacity? With each point of Prime Azure Energy being condensed from a large amount of mana, Valyr was able to reach Platinum on that easily, even going so far as to set a new record of 465 orbs.
Control? Thanks to him consistently using [Ephemeral Limbs of the First Blacksmith] while crafting, he was able to move the objects laid out in front of him as if they were natural extensions of his limbs.
Potency? Considering how one of the spells under his belt had the ability to temporarily put time to a screeching halt, the proctor monitoring over him could only distance themselves out of fear of being affected by his attack.
As for efficiency and recovery… if not for the fact that the proctor had given him a grade of Platinum beforehand and told him to stop, he would have stayed in the magic area almost indefinitely.
Seeing how dominant his performance was in the first area he'd chosen, all of the doubts the audience had towards Valyr's choices disappeared into thin air, instead being replaced with eager anticipation for what he might show in the next area.
Fortunately, after taking a quick break, the young man made his way to the next area he'd chosen.
Mentality.
