"Take as much time as you need." In response to the question, Valyr faintly nodded as Arves nodded back, thanking him not long after. After informing Valyr that he wouldn't take too long to return, Arves eventually left the room, leaving Valyr off in his own thoughts.
"Whew. And here I thought I'd have to make an excuse to showcase my skills to him." Unsurprisingly, once Valyr was certain that Arves had truly left the premises, he sat down on the floor before letting out a long sigh of relief, recalling the conversation that had transpired between the two earlier. "Fortunately, Arves made sure that the qualifications that I showed him were correct. If not for that, I don't really know what kind of excuse I'd make up to show off [Shadow Serpent Combat Style]."
"Now that I think about it… let me double check if I'm at the right place." Sometime later, in the midst of him dwelling in his thoughts, a specific thought popped up within Valyr's mind, prompting him to rummage through his treasure trove of memories from his past life as he went over the various steps he needed to achieve in order to obtain the subclass he wanted.
'The first step is to go through the process of obtaining the Spearman subclass normally. Then, at the end of it, you show off your skills. Once the person aiding you in the process asks you to wait for a while, then you only need to do the task that is given to you before you successfully get a better Spearman subclass.' Going over the things he had done just a while earlier, a relaxed smile appeared on Valyr's face once he realized that he had done everything correctly.
"If I still had [Serpent Spear Combat Style] and [Serpent Steps Movement Style], I would still be able to get a better Spearman subclass," muttered Valyr to himself as he remembered doing the same thing in his previous life. "However, the subclass that I would get would be the subclass I used to use back then, not the subclass that I want to use right now."
In many ways, Valyr's old subclass was by no means weak. Augmenting the art of the spear with the movements of a serpent, the Serpentine Lancer subclass allowed Valyr to emerge victorious against his foes by taking advantage of the serpent-like movement the subclass would make second nature to the owner, giving him the ability to land deadly strikes within the foes' blind spots.
Aside from that, the Serpentine Lancer subclass was considered an Uncommon grade subclass, which effectively gave Valyr more stats in the past if he were to compare it to him obtaining the Spearman subclass, which was only considered Common grade.
Though there's not really much of a problem with him obtaining the Serpentine Lancer subclass in his current life, considering that he now knew multiple ways to upgrade the subclass to a higher rarity, Valyr had already made his mind up on what subclass he was going to get if he was given another chance to do so.
"Hopefully, it all works out like I think it would," murmured Valyr to himself as he took in a few deep breaths. Letting out a low sigh, he then briefly shrugged his shoulders. "Then again, if it doesn't, obtaining that subclass isn't that half bad either."
"Apologies for having you wait for quite some time, Ylvar." Around a couple minutes after Valyr had settled his thoughts over his subclass down, the door to the room was opened once more, revealing Arves alongside an elderly man that had a slightly hunched back.
However, if one were to look past the decrepit exterior of the old man, with the man's sparse gray hair and the numerous wrinkles on his face being prevalent, one would notice that there seemed to be a type of energy lingering within him, an energy that seemed to tell Valyr that he would undoubtedly lose if he fought against the old man.
Of course, Valyr did not even consider fighting against the old man in the first place, instead faintly grinning as he welcomed the two into the room. After all…
The old man was his ticket to the subclass he wanted.
"Let me introduce you to the one that came with me," said Arves to Valyr as he gestured towards the old man beside him. "Ylvar, this is Elder Noel, the first elder of this branch's Spearman Guild."
"Elder Noel, this is Ylvar, the one I've mentioned to you earlier." Sometime later, Arves gestured towards Valyr instead, introducing the old man to the man that stood in front of them.
"A pleasure to become your acquaintance, Elder Noel." Keeping in mind that the old man in front of him was his ticket to his dream subclass, Valyr went ahead and politely bowed towards him, causing Noel to let out a faint chuckle in response.
"It's quite a rarity for youngsters to be so polite nowadays." Noel gave Valyr a brief nod. "In any case, the feeling is mutual."
"So, Arves here told me that you showed him something that I might be interested in," mentioned Noel not long after, raising his eyebrow in curiosity as he looked at Valyr. "Would you mind showing me the thing he was talking about?"
Briefly nodding in response, Valyr took out his spear from his back before distancing himself from the two, making sure that there was enough space for the skill he was going to unleash. Then, after taking in a deep breath, he retracted his spear as far as his arms could retract before thrusting it out with all of the strength he could muster.
"[Shadow Serpent Style]."
"[Strike of the Venomous Night]."
Whoosh!
Similar to him unleashing [Descending Shadow Maw] earlier, in the midst of his thrust, he felt his body smoothly connect with the darkness the orb had made him acquainted to, only for his spear to swiftly be covered in a dark haze as a strong shockwave soon radiated from the spear tip.
Bang!
Accompanied by a strong explosion sound, the dark haze around the spear converged around the spear tip before exploding, leaving a mighty breeze blowing throughout the room for seconds as silence soon covered the entire room.
With widened eyes, both Arves and Noel looked at Valyr with surprise in their eyes, the latter even more so. Nevertheless, amidst the surprise Noel felt, a thought quickly surfaced in his mind, prompting him to come to a decision as he moved a bit closer to Valyr before asking him a question.
"Say… Ylvar, was it?"
"Would you be willing to accept a subclass that goes beyond the limits of a normal Spearman?"
