Chương 29: Progression

"Yeah… that sounds pretty efficient," Gray murmured.

"We've already moved on to the topic of health points, but it seems like everything keeps tying back to cores."

"Absolutely," Ava replied.

"That is why it bears the name."

"Then, without health bars, am I just a shell for my core, making me immortal until the marble shatters?" She wagged her finger.

"Not quite. The removal of those vital organs simply means that you can survive trauma that would normally kill a human. To truly kill an Awakened requires destroying one of two things: the core or the brain."

"It is much easier said than done, though. Consider your skin not as flesh, but as a suit of armor. As an Awakened, you essentially wear a passive layer of leather hide. That's what allows participants to withstand and endure blows that would normally be fatal to regular humans."

"And as you reach the higher tiers, that 'armor' hardens into steel. And at the pinnacle—""You'll become almost invincible," Gray cut in. Ava tilted her head.

"I wouldn't use the word invincible. Our firepower scales somewhat relative to our resilience, but yes, killing a Kaiser is no simple task."

"So I can become a tanky mage." She inhaled sharply.

"Erase that mindset now. Just because I used armor as an analogy for your constitution doesn't actually make it so. Pain hasn't changed. If you take a direct blow to your chest without wearing an actual breastplate, it will hurt just the same."

"Combat between experienced Awakened almost always turns into a battle of attrition. The most common and utilized strategy is to wear down your foe both externally and internally. Essentially turning it into a fight of stamina."

"Once their foe exhausts themselves and is unable to fight back, that's when they deliver the final blow. But I'm not a fan of attrition. It takes too long for my taste. The strategy I'm personally fond of is dismemberment." A cynical smile tugged at her lips, and her eyes drifted over to the scythe.

"Defending yourself without a hand to hold a weapon is quite the arduous task, you see." Gray gulped and murmured his next words.

"Uh… would a health potion… assist with the… dismemberment?" She made a chopping gesture at the crease between her forearm and biceps—the part nobody knew the name for.

"It wouldn't. Potions are utilized for tissue repair, not reconstruction. You would need a skilled healer to fully regrow a limb. Consuming a potion after an amputation is ill-advised because it'll simply heal the skin over the wound, sealing it into a stump."

"A healer can reverse that process, though. However, regrowing a limb that a potion has already healed over requires a massive amount of manpower. The treatment would require several of the Church's best healers, along with an agonizing regimen lasting over a month. Not to mention the exorbitant cost of the service."

"Then, do potions help with healing the core?"

"Unfortunately, potions cannot heal cores. But as long as they do not shatter into dust, it will eventually regenerate on its own."

"Depending on the severity of the damage, the recovery process could take anywhere from a day to several decades—but not without the consequence of potentially losing several of your spells permanently."

"Based on the location of the damage, the spell pocket that resided in that area will crack open, its essence dissipating into thin air. There are many Kaisers who have managed to survive their expeditions, but they had to sacrifice every single ability they carried. You'll manage to live, but you could lose the very powers that make you an Awakened."

"Is there no way for them to gain their abilities back?" Gray asked. Ava shook her head.

"Not at the Kaiser Rank. While the core's exterior might have healed, its interior is utterly gutted, filled with hollow pockets that won't amount to anything ever again. People have tried to replace the damaged core with another, but we haven't seen any success with that yet." Ava stood up from her chair.

"I think that's enough for now. I really should use the remainder of this intermission to teach you how to fight—""No!" Gray exclaimed, then reeled back from the outburst, lowering his voice.

"My apologies for yelling. Combat is important to learn, sure, but how can I learn to fight if I don't understand the rules of the sport first?"

"Everything you have taught me here is much more valuable than something like proper footwork or the right way to swing a sword." Gray leaned over, peeking into the kitchen.

"And besides… I'm sure you can convince Gozen to teach me how to fight in the transmissions, right?" Ava crossed her arms and glared at him. After a few seconds, a proud smile spread across her face.

"Oh, that won't be a problem."

"It seems that I've inherited a second disciple, so I must do everything in my power to assist you now. But before that…" Ava warped a chalkboard from her ring, its attached legs and wheels plopping onto the floor.

"I forgot to teach you about the most crucial mechanic! What everything we have learned so far ties into: abilities! But first…" Ava summoned a piece of chalk, officially beginning part two of this long-winded info dump.

"Let's start with the basics. Mastery," she said, tapping the white chalk against the board.

"Every class possesses one key mastery skill that defines them. Yours is Cloud Mastery. Mine is blood. An Archer would naturally possess Archer Mastery."

"The passive mastery skill encompasses the laws of your class. For mages who wield elements, it comes down to the raw manipulation of their specific element, effectively acting as both an active and passive ability. But for a martial class such as an archer, their mastery skill is solely passive, enhancing things such as their aim, dexterity, and eyesight."

"I figured it was something like that," Gray spoke up.

"But what I don't understand is why I can't seem to get a handle on mine. I try to feel the clouds. To move them around, but it just feels like trying to grab smoke with a pair of chopsticks. Are elements inherently harder to work with compared to just having a passive stat boost like an Archer or Warrior?" Ava dusted her fingers and turned to face him.

"Elements are actually fairly simple to get the hang of. I only have a general understanding as to why you're struggling so much, so I'll leave that to Gozen to explain to you later." The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. She turned back around and continued where she had left off.

"The better control you have over your mastery, the more potent the rest of your abilities become. This will be crucial when the tier of your abilities eventually increases." Recalling the word 'tier,' Gray summoned his status sheet and swiped down to the abilities section.

"I assumed these could be upgraded. How do I go about doing that?"

"With Tier Upgrade Shards, of course! Once consumed, they allow you to increase the tier of any ability you currently possess." She flipped over the chalkboard, revealing a fresh surface, and wrote out the tier progressions in big, bold letters. TIER I → TIER II → TIER III → PRIME"Every ability follows this four-stage evolution. With each tier upgrade, the ability doesn't just get a power boost—it evolves, becoming a deviant form of its former self."

She wrote a list of letter grades and their corresponding levels in a column. Awakened: Levels 1-5 Elite: Levels 6-10 Peak: Levels 11-15 Ascendant: Levels 16-20 Prestige: Levels 21-25 Kaiser: Level 25-30"Every rank comprises of five levels. The rank of Awakened is forgiving. Once you hit the level cap of your current grade—level 5—you are ready to advance to the next rank. That only requires the consumable item: Advancement Stone." A stack of black rocks warped out of her ring and clattered onto the floor.

They were visually similar to coal, but with a glossy hue. The loud grumble from the kitchen caused her to withdraw the stones back into her ring quickly. She drew a thick horizontal line above Elite, sectioning it off from Awakened.

"An Advancement Stone will get you to Elite. Then, the rules change." Underneath the column of ranks, she wrote in big, bold letters: RANKED TRIALS.

"Ranked trials?" Gray asked. Ava nodded, echoing his words.

"Ranked Trials. To rank up beyond Elite, you will need to face these trials to ascend into the next tier. You must conquer the challenges given to you, then face the Trial Boss at the end. This entity will always be one rank above your current."

"What? How is that fair?" Gray said.

"It is a test, after all. The System judges whether you're deserving of that rank by forcing you to overcome a beast one caliber above you. Once you slay the boss, it'll drop an Advancement Core you consume to evolve your rank."

"No two trials are ever the same. Which is the tricky part. Researchers believe the System randomizes the experience so Awakened cannot share information and prepare beforehand."

"The only thing you can do to prepare for the Ranked Trials is to upgrade the tier of your abilities and hone them. But first, we must talk about actually acquiring those abilities."

"As you already know, you can increase the quantity of abilities you possess by consuming Ability Shards. But don't get used to the System handing them out to you like in the Natural Selection. Once the race concludes, you will have to grind your way to obtain these Shards." Gray held a hand high, catching her attention.

"Okay. But what's stopping me from acquiring a ton of these 'Ability Shards' to gain over a hundred spells?" Ava spread her arms wide and high, curled her fingers into claws, and increased the size of her figure.

"Rift Bosses."

"They are the only entities that can provide you with those shards. The trial boss in your Ranked Trials counts as one, and Astral Rifts contain them as well. You will learn more about rifts when you enter the Kaiser Academy, but for now, just think of them as RPG dungeons."

"These bosses drop Rift Fragments. Once you collect enough of them, you can craft them into either an Ability Shard or a Tier Upgrade Shard. But don't think for a second that you can just punch down and farm bosses ranks lower than yours. A boss will only drop Rift Fragments if their rank is equal to or greater than yours."

"These limitations also apply to all members of a party. In other words, if you enter an Elite-Ranked Astral Rift with a Kaiser in your party, the boss won't drop Rift Fragments because of the Kaiser's presence. For them to carry a group of Elites, they would have to conquer a Kaiser-Ranked Astral Rift together. This doesn't happen often, though, because the difficulty of the rift scales with the number of Awakened who enter it; regardless of their rank."

"Okay, then wouldn't affluent guilds just have a mountain of these fragments and shards in their vaults?" Gray asked.

"They do. The System implemented a half-measure against that, though. If it detects that you're not using the shards for yourself, it disables fragment drops from equal-rank bosses for those 'fragment farmers', forcing them to fight a boss one rank higher than their own. But that doesn't mean guilds can't circumvent the restriction. These factions will stunt the growth of their lower-ranked Awakened by confiscating the fragments they obtain and redistributing them back to their elites."

"Do all guilds do something so heinous to their own members?" Gray winced at the exploitation.

"Not all, but it is common practice. Most of the time, it actually is an equal trade-off. The majority of Awakened aren't ambitious past the Peak rank because the Ranked Trials are a risky endeavor. You cannot leave a Ranked Trial until you finish it. In other words, if you can't kill the boss or conquer the challenges—""You'll be stuck in there forever," Gray finished for her. Ava gave a solemn nod.

"Because of the high risk, Awakened choose to stagnate at the Peak rank and retire from that life entirely. This is why it's called peak, signifying the highest point of their journey to Kaiser. The title of Ascendant comes right after, as it represents their ascent out of stagnation."

"They officially stamp that retirement by farming fragments until the System intervenes with its penalty. Then, they sell them off as a retirement fund." Gray rubbed his chin, absorbing the fresh information.

"Yeah, that makes sense. So why is the Ascendant Ranked Trial so risky compared to the ones before it? How do you prepare for that?" Gray asked.

"I personally didn't find the Ascendant Trial too difficult. If you're taking the Kaiser's path seriously, it shouldn't be an issue."

"To prepare, you must upgrade your abilities to the next tier before facing them, because of a specific prerequisite locked behind the Ranked Trial: your entire spell loadout must reach a certain tier, and you need to be at the maximum level of your current rank."

"The requirement for challenging a Peak Ranked-Trial as an Elite is simple enough: you just have to possess a minimum of five abilities. The success rate of a Peak Trial is extremely high at about 90%, but that percentage drops to around 50 when facing the Ascendant Trial. That's why the majority of Awakened on Astoria cap out at Peak."

"If you want to face the Ascendant Trial at the Peak Rank, however, you must upgrade all abilities to Tier II. To face the Prestige Trial as an Ascendant, Tier III. And to tackle the Kaiser Trial: Prime."

"That is also why you shouldn't be greedy with the quantity of your spells. Otherwise, you will need to obtain a Tier Upgrade Shard for every single one of them just to challenge the Ranked Trials. And know this: once you near the max level of your rank, the drop rate of those fragments decreases."

"That means I'd have to face more bosses if I can't obtain the ideal ability loadout that I want, or if I need to upgrade them all to the required tier. The System won't label me a 'fragment farmer' and force me to fight a higher-ranked boss, because I'm technically using all the fragments for myself, right?" Ava nodded.

"Exactly. This drop rate penalty mainly affects Awakened who level up by fighting regular Riftborn beasts and are either too incompetent to kill the Rift Boss, or run away out of fear. You may exit a regular Astral Rift whenever you so desire, after all."

"One last thing. This isn't really important to you yet, but there is one aspect you should know regarding ranks: Sovereign. It is the real pinnacle. The rank one tier above Kaiser. They are given the privilege to level up all the way to 50. The path of advancement to Sovereign is a highly guarded secret though, but just know… there might be a few of them out there."

"So, Gozen's a Sovereign?" Gray asked. The air in the room turned cold, a hazy fog swallowing it whole. A gust of wind violently slammed against Gray's spine, alongside wisps of smoke curling over his shoulders. Before he could fully grasp the situation, a cold kitchen knife pressed against his neck, drawing a tiny drop of blood.

"How do you know about that, boy?" Gozen's voice rumbled right next to his ear.