"Can you perform a mana assessment even if I don't have an Innate Device?"
Noah curiously followed Stella into a spacious, highly advanced laboratory inside the royal palace.
This was no ordinary high school science lab, it was a massive reinforced testing space roughly the size of three or four basketball courts.
Quite a few personnel wearing pristine white lab coats were bustling about, busy checking monitors and adjusting heavy machinery that Noah couldn't comprehend.
"It is perfectly fine," Stella assured him. "While manifesting an Innate Device can maximize an Ability's potential and significantly increase your offensive power, this specific test is mainly just to assess your total raw mana and your magical control."
"I see."
Noah stood in the center of the testing room on a reinforced metal platform, which slowly locked into place.
"Your Highness Stella, what type of Ability test shall we conduct?" a female head researcher asked.
Hearing this question, the princess finally remembered that she hadn't actually asked Noah what his specific Ability was yet.
Noah overheard the researcher and answered directly.
"I am a Natural Causality type."
"Huh?"
The researcher paused, looking up from her tablet with genuine surprise.
Stella, however, wasn't too shocked.
When the two of them were outside earlier, the invisible air manipulation the young man had used to cool her down had clearly felt like a Natural Causality type of magic.
"In that case, may I ask what specific elemental attribute it is?" the researcher asked, tapping her screen.
The unique Abilities of Blazers were officially divided into several major categories by the League.
Among them, the Natural Causality type—as its name implied—was the rare ability to directly interfere with natural, elemental physics.
For example, the ability to manipulate fire, the ability to control the wind, or even high-level abilities that manipulated gravity.
In the distant past, people born with such elemental abilities were simply called mages or witches.
A Natural Causality type who used fire was called a fire mage.
By the same logic, a lightning user was a lightning mage, and a wind user was a wind mage.
Although there were massive differences in individual power levels, mages of the exact same attribute often used combat techniques with the same underlying principles.
For example, a "Vacuum Blade" was a typical, standardized technique used by almost all wind mages.
"Can't you just test for multiple attributes at the exact same time?" Noah asked, tilting his head in puzzlement.
Hearing his question, the researcher frowned, wondering if she had misheard him.
'Multiple attributes? What does that mean... Isn't he just a normal Natural Causality type? A Blazer can only have one Ability!'
"Um, perhaps I didn't make myself clear," the researcher smiled awkwardly. "In any case, please just attack the armored target in front of you with the single attribute you can manipulate."
Noah sighed.
He gave up on trying to explain it with words.
He raised his right hand, aiming at the heavy reinforced dummy target standing about ten meters in front of him.
'Aight, I will just start with wind.'
Noah aimed at the target, his palm facing the floor.
He used his Weaver skill to grab the air in the room, rapidly compressing it into a violently rotating storm.
When the wind element condensed into a highly visible, glowing cyan spiral in his hand, he raised his arm and threw the roaring storm forward as if hurling a javelin.
Weaver's absolute manipulation range was exactly five meters.
However, that didn't mean his attack range was limited to five meters.
As long as a magical spell was fully formed and stabilized within his five-meter radius, he could throw it as far as he wanted.
It would simply become a rigid, unchangeable projectile once it left his control zone, just like a normal magic spell in Orario.
The spiraling blade of wind tore across the room, carving deep screeching scars into the reinforced floor before striking the dummy target fiercely in the chest.
However, upon taking the massive hit from the wind blade, the surface of the dummy target instantly shifted, becoming extremely hard.
It successfully resisted the cutting wind without taking any permanent damage.
The researcher looked down at the digital values rapidly scrolling on her tablet.
She pushed up her glasses in total shock.
"A score of 577! Amazing! This level of raw offensive power has already easily surpassed Rank B!"
"Really?!" Stella asked excitedly, her crimson eyes sparkling.
The researcher was equally thrilled.
The two of them stood safely behind the reinforced glass, excitedly discussing the numbers on the screen.
An offensive power that reached Rank B almost guaranteed that his total mana capacity wouldn't be lower than a B.
That was the most important qualification for a Blazer!
And since Noah was a highly destructive Natural Causality type, he could already be considered an elite Blazer with a boundless future.
He was almost guaranteed to become a famous, high-ranking Mage-Knight!
But out on the floor, Noah hadn't received the signal that the test was over.
He cleanly dispersed the remaining wind in the air and immediately began manipulating the fire element, easily condensing a massive, roaring fireball above his head.
Because of the sudden appearance of the scorching flames, the laboratory's ambient temperature rose rapidly.
The researcher and Stella both snapped their heads up, staring in utter shock at the young man still standing casually on the test platform.
"Fire?! A fire-attribute Natural Causality type?!"
"Wait, didn't you just say he was a wind mage?!" Stella gasped.
Pure fire magic, even when highly compressed, didn't naturally have the same instantaneous armor-piercing explosive power as a compressed wind blade.
Therefore, Noah decided to add a little something extra to this fireball.
"Explosion."
BOOM!
The massive fireball, perfectly constructed through Spell-Weaver's shot forward at extreme speed.
The exact moment the fireball hit the dummy target, the target's metallic surface once again rapidly changed its physical properties to absorb the heat.
Noah stared at it, appraising it with Truth Seeker and instantly discovered its secret.
'It's a special, reactive metal that adapts its physical defense based on the specific elemental attribute of the attack.'
'Not a bad material. It could probably be forged to make some very strong, lightweight armor back in Orario.'
The crimson fireball exploded violently against the dummy.
Noah casually summoned a thick wind barrier in front of himself, completely blocking the spreading shockwave and heat.
It was a good thing the testing room was spacious and heavily reinforced, or the massive blast might have melted the expensive monitors and instruments along the walls.
Beep! Beep!
The researcher stared in pale astonishment at the terrifying scorched crater Noah's Explosion had caused.
It took her a long moment to remember to look down at the tablet shaking in her hand.
"1,102! The offensive power output... it has officially reached Rank A!"
"What?!" Stella was completely stunned.
Could it be that this random, escaped slave she had dragged back from the slums was actually the second A-Rank knight in the entire history of the Vermillion Empire?!
One had to know, a true A-Rank knight was hailed globally as a super-genius who appeared only once a decade.
Even in the highly prestigious Hagun Academy, there wasn't a single A-Rank student enrolled, which was enough to demonstrate the world-shaking value of an A-Rank rating.
'Moreover... had he really just used two completely different elemental attributes—wind and fire—consecutively?!'
''Although his wind attack was slightly inferior to his explosive fire spell, it was definitely a genuine, fully mastered wind Ability.'
'That level of power wasn't something that could just be achieved as a random byproduct of a fire Ability!'
'A dual-attribute Natural Causality type?!' Stella was completely confused.
She had never heard of anyone in history who could manipulate multiple conflicting elements, let alone have both attributes reach such a terrifying level of power!
"Noah, that is enough! Come over here behind the glass, we have some urgent questions for you!" Stella shouted hurriedly.
But the young man just turned his head and asked in a genuinely questioning tone.
"Do the other attributes not need to be tested today?"
His casual words left Stella frozen completely solid in place.
The researcher's hands trembled so violently that the expensive tablet she was holding slipped from her fingers and shattered on the floor.
With a casual, lazy wave of his hand, Noah made freezing sub-zero ice crystals materialize out of thin air all around him.
This was already the third distinct attribute he had displayed.
Seeing that the metal platform beneath his feet wasn't moving back to the entrance, he simply jumped off the high ledge.
His rapid descent slowed abruptly just before he hit the ground, landing as lightly as a feather.
A fourth attribute, Gravity.
"You have got to be kidding me. I have never even heard of such a thing in any research paper..." the researcher mumbled, beginning to seriously question her grip on reality.
She had never seen a Natural Causality type like this.
Could it be that he could manipulate even more attributes?!
"Young man... what exactly is your true Ability?"
Stella also stared at him through the glass, her face full of intense curiosity and awe.
Noah didn't bother hiding it.
He stated frankly, "I can freely manipulate all elements and perform some special, physical processing on them. But my range of manipulation is very limited."
"Manipulate... all elements?"
The researcher stared at him blankly, looking at him as if she were seeing a mythological god descend from the heavens.
As a strict scientific scholar, a normal person might not be able to comprehend what the existence of someone who could control all natural elements meant.
If this boy's Ability truly had no upper limit, she would have thought the young man was a literal incarnation of the Creator.
With Noah's calm cooperation, Stella and the researcher were shocked countless more times over the next hour.
In the end, they produced an official report card that no one but Noah himself could actually accept as reality.
[Official League Assessment] > * Blazer Rank: Unregistered
Innate Device: [Blank / Unmanifested]
Ability: Natural Causality Type (Capable of manipulating all elements)
Offensive Power: A
Defensive Power: C
Mana Capacity: C
Mana Control: A
Physical Ability: C
Luck: B
This was, without a single doubt, the strangest, most contradictory Ability assessment result Stella had ever seen in her life.
His total Mana Capacity was only graded at a C, but the explosive Offensive Power he could generate reached an A-Rank!
Furthermore, one of the two metrics used to calculate his Mana Control had reached a literally immeasurable range.
The so-called "Offensive Power" stat was a measure of the total magnitude of destructive force a Blazer could cause.
Judging from his earlier attacks, the A-Rank was entirely well-deserved.
Moreover, according to Noah himself, he hadn't even unleashed his most powerful spells yet.
"Defensive Power," which was resistance to attacks, usually involved forming a solid wall of raw mana.
The rank of attacks one could successfully block was generally consistent with one's total Mana Capacity.
In fact, even after repeated, rigorous tests, the researcher still couldn't believe that the young man's total mana pool was merely at a C-Rank level.
It was all due to his overpoweringly versatile Ability and his monstrous Mana Control.
The "Mana Control" assessment was divided into two parts: control precision and manipulation range.
In terms of control precision, the young man had already broken straight through the testing machine's ceiling.
The highest possible score the computer could track was far from his actual limit, even the most incredibly difficult, microscopic control tests were as natural as breathing for him.
The problem that dragged his score down was his manipulation range.
A strict radius of exactly five meters.
This manipulation range could by no means be called wide.
On the official scorecard, his short range directly dragged down his overall control score.
But even with that severe penalty, his Mana Control was still graded at Rank A!
Because the young man had no official track record as an active Blazer and this assessment was not monitored by the League, they couldn't simply assign him an official Blazer Rank on the spot.
Even so, looking at the impossible numbers on the screen, Stella understood one thing with absolute certainty.
The young man's talent was truly terrifying!
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