"System, I would like to ascend."
Hearing those words come out of the First Forger's mouth, Valyr watched as the entire forge became seemingly frozen in time as a series of screens appeared before the man.
Having already gone through the ascension process multiple times at this point, the only thing that piqued the curiosity of the young man were the choices the First Forger had during his ascension to Rank 1.
Fortunately, the man did not disappoint, with the selection of species he could evolve into being a far longer list than even the one Valyr received by the time he ascended to Rank 3.
"Half-Orc, Orc Warlord, Orc Warrior, Primal Human…" Just like how he was able to read the description of the artifact the man forged thanks to the memory, the choices the First Forger had in his evolution were also visible to the young man.
With that, Valyr was left at a slight loss for words after seeing how many of them were related to orcs, humans, and hybrids between the two.
Though, after pondering over it for a bit, the young man felt that it made sense.
After all, before the advent of the system, the man lived in a society where orcs ruled supreme, his purpose merely being a type of entertainment for them.
Aside from choices related to those two races, the First Forger surprisingly also had choices that involved the other dominant races of Veldanyr before the Age of Uprising.
Then again, such choices also made a lot of sense, considering how he and many others were part of the frontlines when it came to expanding the human race's territory even further.
Of course, there were also the choices where the man could evolve into a variant of human that specialized in a certain area, something that was more or less a given once one proceeded to ascend to Rank 1.
However, even though the man had a lot of choices where the upsides of the species outweighed their downsides, the First Forger eventually settled on a choice that caught Valyr by slight surprise.
Ding!
[You have chosen to evolve to the species 'Human (1st Unsealing)'.]
'Does he know about the quirks of that path?' Taking a while to recover from the surprise of the man's choice, such thoughts began to linger in the young man's mind.
After all, out of all the choices that were on the First Forger's list, the man had chosen one of the very few that offered next to nothing in terms of benefit.
Sure, if the First Forger were to continue down that path and reach its end, he would undoubtedly get his hands on a race that would bolster not only his attributes to a higher realm, but also the other aspects of strength.
However, Valyr had only come to know of that quirk thanks to hindsight, as well as an opportunity to start over from scratch.
'At this point, I'm more than sure that the First Forger was someone who was also brought back to the past,' thought the young man to himself, confident in his assessment as he watched the man continue with his class selection.
Whoosh!
Unsurprisingly, with how many choices the man had in terms of species he could evolve into, the same could be said for the man's class, its length possibly twice or thrice as long as the list Valyr had in his recent ascension.
Though, unlike the variety of choices he had in his species, there were only two general trends in the class choices that were offered to the First Forger.
Classes related to combat…
And classes related to forging.
Browsing through the combat-related classes the First Forger obtained, Valyr noticed that the weapon-based classes the man could choose from were quite basic.
Of course, thanks to how long the man had spent honing his strength in the battlefield, there were a few choices on the list that had achieved a considerably high rarity.
However, from how the First Forger looked at those classes with a frown, the young man understood there and then that choosing those classes would only limit the man's seemingly boundless potential.
Then again, for the combat classes that did not rely on any weapons whatsoever, the man surprisingly had a wide selection of classes he could choose from.
On top of that, a bunch of those classes went up to Legendary and Mythic grade, prompting the young man to suck in a breath of cold air at how many strong combat classes the man had access to.
But of course, with the man eventually becoming known as the First Forger, the man skipped over all of the combat classes he had, soon focusing his attention on the forging classes he would be able to obtain.
Unlike the combat classes, where the man had a plethora of strong and high-rarity classes he could choose from, the number of high-rarity forging classes the First Forger had access to seemed lacking in comparison.
In exchange, all of the high-rarity forging classes the man had access to were Mythic grade at the lowest, with one class among them instantly piquing both his and Valyr's attention.
"We're really off to a good start here." The man chuckled, choosing the class that caught his interest without hesitation.
Ding!
[You have chosen to evolve to the class 'Trailblazer of the Forging Path (Veldanyr)'.]
Seeing that the First Forger had chosen the class that he took notice of, a faint smile appeared on the young man's face, knowing that even he would have chosen the class in that situation.
After all, even though the name of the class sounded incredibly simple…
The class was actually Ancient grade in rarity.
'I wonder what kind of skills the man got after choosing the class,' asked Valyr to himself, being reminded of how all of his basic forging skills were transformed into that of his class after his first ascension.
'But more importantly… how many stat points does he receive every level?'
With the question lingering in his mind, Valyr watched as the man brought up the description of the class he had just chosen, only for a satisfied smile to appear on his face after reading through its contents.
Ding!
