Chapter 87: Worldly Wisdom

Chapter 87: Worldly Wisdom

Skills Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Aim (27 ->29)

Light Armor (9 ->10)

Memorization {Social} (14 ->15)

Piano (16 ->17)

Tier 2:

Mana Absorption (50 ->51)

Tier 4:

Dual Casting (13 ->15)

Affinities Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Air (55 ->57)

Earth (55 ->57)

Fire (55 ->57)

Water (55 ->57)

Tier 2:

Ice (30 ->31)

Lightning (19 ->24)

Magma (30 ->31)

Metal (30 ->31)

Mist (19 ->24)

Mud (19 ->24)

Plasma (30 ->31)

Wood (30 ->31)

Tier 3:

Bludgeon (4 ->8)

Durability (15 ->16)

Friction (4 ->8)

Gravity (15 ->16)

Kinetic (15 ->16)

Mass (4 ->8)

Piercing (15 ->16)

Class Skills:

"If you have the strength to run your mouth, you have the strength to run your legs," Refix called over. "Get to it."

Teilon and Kimberly took another quick swig of water before picking their weapons back up and resuming their sparring. Tom, Vane, and Trick shared a wide-eyed look with each other. They weren't willing to make any teasing comments lest they be subjected to harsher training themselves. They could practically feel Ameliyn waiting for one of them to say something, so they all firmly kept their mouths shut as they channeled their Mana.

"The nature of the world is one vast, infinite plane," Master Salrah said. Being the Political Science instructor, geopolitics was in her wheelhouse. As such, she also explained a bit about the different Regions that the students were likely to interact with throughout their lives. This eventually led to the Tier 4 kingdom that they were ultimately a vassal state to, the Quron Empire.

In order to properly explain the details of the Tier 4 kingdom and their closest rivals, Master Salrah also introduced the students to the wider Realm as a whole. Reivyn had been very interested in learning about the Tier 4 kingdoms, as he viewed them as a peer group to his parents and family. Master Salrah had gone into detail about their Tier 4 kingdom, their trade partners, and their rivals.

She had also drawn a web of trade partners and rivals extending out in an ever larger map of Quron's peer kingdoms. There were crisscrossing relationships between many of the kingdoms, much more so even than the relationships between their Tier 3, 2, and 1 vassal states. Despite overlapping relationships, the web of Tier 4 Empires had expanded out until there were over 20 Tier 4 kingdoms in what Master Salrah referred to as "The Local Group."

There are about 10 million people in this kingdom, and each Tier 1 kingdom has approximately 10 to 20 million citizens depending on the geographical size of the Region, Reivyn thought. Each Tier 2 kingdom also has anywhere from 20-50 million people in them, plus the 10 to 15 Tier 1 vassals under them. Tier 3 kingdoms typically have 50-100 million citizens, with 8 to 12 Tier 2 vassals. Tier 4 kingdoms have anywhere from 100-300 million citizens and 6-10 Tier 3 vassals.

If we average that out, we get 12.5 Tier 1 kingdoms with 15 million people, 10 Tier 2 kingdoms with 25 million people, 8 Tier 3 kingdoms with 75 million people, and then 200 million people for the Tier 4 empires. That's... Reivyn did the mental arithmetic, 1 billion, 237 million people, on average, per Tier 4 empire. And Master Salrah said there are twenty Tier 4 Empires in the Local Group.

Even if the Realm isn't actually infinite, I can see why it wouldn't be a stretch to refer to it as such, anyway. The numbers involved boggled the mind.

"Keep in mind that Tier 4 regions are as high as any empire settles," Master Salrah continued. "There are cities, towns, settlements, and outposts in Tier 5 and 6 regions, respectively, but they're not a central power group for an empire. They're mostly made up of independent groups of powerful people, and any families that get started typically move out to a Tier 4 empire because it's just too dangerous to raise children in such an environment.

"The Realm has up to Tier 8 Regions, but none of the known ones near any of the Local Group empires have any kind of human settlements in them, and only the strongest Classers, or the foolish, dare even step into them. Not only are there large portions of the Realm too dangerous for human civilization, but there are also vast swathes of empty Tier 1 through 4 Regions that don't have any people living in them, either.

"There are various reasons for such, two of the main reasons being inhospitable climates, like deserts and too tall mountains, or a lack of Dungeons or other resources. There are a few such Regions around our Local Group, but the main reason our Local Group is formed as it is is that there are vast oceans surrounding it.

"The oceans follow the same rules as the land when it comes to different Tier Regions, but they also have to account for the three-dimensional environment. It's a recognized rule of thumb that deeper Regions are higher Tier, but that's not an absolute rule. It is extremely dangerous to try and traverse the oceans to another Local Group, but ancient, powerful people have done so. That's how the teleportation arrays were initially set up.

"Now, to really blow your minds," Master Salrah paused, scanning the room to build anticipation for her next statement, "there are one hundred Local Groups in our 'Local Cluster.'"

A memory from a Dream of vast emptiness filled with billions of stars forming trillions of galaxies quickly flashed through Reivyn's mind. The way the Realm is set up is strangely similar, Reivyn thought. If there are 100 Local Groups with about 24 billion people on average, and there are 100 Local Groups in the Local Cluster, that's over 2 trillion people. And, again, Master Salrah calls it the Local Cluster. Maybe the Realm really is infinite, and it's not just an apt interpretation.

There might be a record of all of the Tier 4 kingdoms in the Local Cluster. I wonder if the Vynn Empire is one of them? I don't know how many teleportations my parents took, and I don't know the range of them, either. But there are 200 Tier 4 Empires in the Local Cluster, so it might very well be...

There was one other lesson that piqued Reivyn's interest in the last month of the second semester. It wasn't the full lecture that grabbed his interest, but a portion of it.

"There are eight Tiers of Classes, and eight Tiers of Regions, but only seven Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken, the Mana Theory instructor, said. "Does anyone know why this is?"

Master Hilken paused the lesson to scan the room. Nobody raised their hand to answer the question. It was common knowledge, but the students had never really contemplated why, including Reivyn.

"Well, there are actually eight Tiers of Rarity. Does anyone know what the eighth Tier is?" He once more scanned the room.

Hmmm... If one can force a Tier 3 Class while in Tier 2, and Tier 3 can go up to Mythic without intervention from an Ascended, then what happens if a Tier 2 forces a Mythic Tier 3 Class? With that line of thought, Reivyn raised his hand. Master Hilken nodded his head to Reivyn.

"Would it be something like Pseudo-Divine?" Reivyn asked. Master Hilken clapped his hands together, loudly.

"Exactly!" He said. "Good job. Yes, Pseudo-Divine is the seventh Tier Rarity, and Divine is technically the eighth. Each Tier of Rarity has approximately equivalent Stat gains, increasing with each upgrade in Rarity. Pseudo-Divine and Divine, though, have equal Stat gains, but Divine Classes have access to Divine Skills, which use Divine Mana. Pseudo-Divine does not have access to Divine Mana. One has to have intervention from a Higher Plane to gain access to Divine Mana.

"Does anyone know why Pseudo-Divine Rarity is not common knowledge?" Reivyn looked around the class, and after noticing that nobody raised their hand, he raised his once more.

"Because it can only be obtained in Tier 2?" Reivyn asked once called upon.

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Master Hilken asked.

"Because one can raise the Rarity of their Class by forcing a Tier 3 Class in Tier 2, and Mythic Classes are technically possible at Tier 3. Though, it's literally unheard of for someone to attain a Mythic Class that early. Those 2 incredibly difficult things in their own right need to be accomplished by one person before they reach Level 10 in Tier 2."

"That's correct," Master Hilken said with a nod. He shook his head immediately after, though, "but that's only half of the answer. Yes, one can achieve Pseudo-Divine Rarity at Tier 2, but that's actually the rarer way to get it. The other way, also extremely difficult, is to reach Tier 8. Tier 8 has a minimum requirement of a Mythic Tier 7 Class.

"One of the perks of achieving Tier 8 is the possibility of ranking up one's Tier to Pseudo-Divine. The difficulty of achieving the requirements, though, is supposedly as difficult as achieving a Mythic Tier 3 Class. I say supposedly because there are myths and legends of people reaching that rarity at Tier 8, but nobody around here knows the full truth of the matter, just that it is real.

"So, there are 8 Tiers of Classes, 8 Tiers of Regions, and 8 Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken paced in front of the class. "Many scholars espouse the philosophy of the 'Divine 9.' You might get lessons on it in your Philosophy classes, but I wouldn't know. Us Casters ascribe to the 'Infinite 8' philosophy. The 8 Tiers of Classes, Regions, and Rarity create infinite possibilities, and the symbol for infinity is a sideways 8.

"Lastly, there are 4 Tiers of Affinities. You might be thinking, 'that breaks the convention,' but I assure you, it does not. It's commonly known that non-Mana users gain the ability to use Mana Skills when they achieve a Tier 4 Class. This is because one's Class Tier affects one's Affinity limit.

"Everyone knows that Casters have a limit to how high they can Level their affinities based on their talent in said Affinity. What isn't common knowledge, is that each Tier advancement adds 5 to the maximum Level one can achieve in their Affinities. Tier 1 and 2 Classes increase Tier 1 Affinities by 5. Tier 2 and 3 Classes increase Tier 1 and Tier 2 Affinities by 5, and so on and so forth. Tier 7 and 8 increase all Affinities by 10.

"Non-Casters have a technical Level 0 cap in their Affinities before they get their first Class, but once they reach a minimum Level cap of 20, they unlock the ability to now Level those Affinities. That also means that non-Casters will never unlock any Tier 4 Affinities without natural treasures found only in Tier 6 and higher Regions."

That's very similar to what mom said about requiring a foundation of Level 20 in the basic Affinities in order to channel the advanced group exercise, Reivyn thought.

I wonder what the rules for Tier 5 Affinities are?