“Since the beginning, there have been too many worlds for us to count. Some say that there are infinite worlds, while others think we just have yet to discover the last. There’s an entire other story dedicated to the origin of our universe, but that’s not important right now. My point is that no, we aren’t in the heavens, because contrary to what the Hong clan might have taught you, there isn’t just one world, and we haven’t even found the heavens yet.”
“Wait,” Seira chimed in. “If there are no heavens, where do you live?”
Aer laughed.
“Well, again, contrary to your beliefs, anyone can become a Saint. We aren’t transcendent beings, just regular people with a bit more power than you guys. Same with Gods. It’s all talking about cultivation, just like your Levels.
“So I can become a Saint?”
“Yep. In fact, that’s the plan for you guys.”
Kiro closed his eyes, trying to process all the information. It was too much — he’d have to sort through it later. Right now, he just needed to try and not get overwhelmed.
“So what Level are Saints?”
The Saint frowned, thinking.
“There isn’t really a good way to scale it to what you know right now, but rest assured that I’m at least a few thousand times stronger than you.”
Seira gasped, but Kiro didn’t see how that was too astounding compared to everything else. Maybe that was just him not really being able to wrap his head around it.
Rynn tapped his foot in anticipation, eyes flashing.
“Honored Saint, how did you get so powerful?”
“Good question! You guys remember I said there are a lot, a lot of worlds? Well, as you climb ‘higher’ in these worlds, they generally get stronger. So as you get stronger, you can ascend, which makes it easier to get stronger, which allows you to ascend again, and again, and again.”
“It’s not just the inhabitants that get stronger, either. You wouldn’t have an easier time advancing if that was the case.”
Aer gestured around them, flaring her aura.
“The mana itself gets more dense, which is why Kiro had so much trouble when we first arrived. Because of this, by going to a higher world, you’re able to achieve levels of power that would’ve never been imaginable in lower worlds. ”
Seeing the looks of wonder on their faces, Aer stopped, waving her hands.
“Don’t get your hopes up too much. The void between worlds ‘flows’ up, meaning that it’s many times easier to ascend than descend. Now, this might seem good at first, but think about it for a second. You want to be powerful among your peers, so you ascend, and climb the ranks. However, because everyone else on this new world is equally powerful, you aren’t. And you can’t descend, because you’re not strong enough, so you ascend again…”
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Kiro nodded. You would be stuck at the same level of relative power forever. Aer smiled, seeing that they had figured it out.
“This phenomenon is called the climber’s dilemma. If you don’t have the talent, you’re essentially not moving at all, wasting all this time and effort for an unachievable goal. It’s also why you hardly see anyone descend. If you do have the talent, why bother descending? You’re already incredibly powerful, and if you wanted to be nearly immeasurable compared to your home world, you would ascend a couple more times before descending.”
The Saint tilted her head, absentmindedly blowing a far away tree back and forth with flicks of her finger.
“That’s not to say that there aren’t benefits to advancement. As you grow stronger, your lifespan increases, and you get access to unique abilities lower stages don’t have. However, you’ll spend most of your increased lifespan cultivating more, and it takes an awful amount of time to get to a breakthrough that grants something that big.”
Aer seemed to deflate a little, and continued.
“Because of that, not a lot of people end up ascending, even though it’s really not that hard. There is one big reason that people do it, though. The limit. The furthest humanity can go. Once you ascend enough, you’ll reach the frontier, the highest humanity has climbed ever. A lot of people are either curious, ambitious, or foolish enough to go there, where everything is stronger than you, in order to reach just a bit further.”
She sighed, and the cheerful, whimsical woman blew away, replaced by a tired, disillusioned veteran.
“A lot of Chosen — that’s the wider worlds’ version of your Brave rank, by the way, clan heirs, inherited disciples, and the like will try to go there to get as strong as possible before coming back down, but almost none of them get there. Instead, they’ll get stranded on a world, too weak to descend and not confident enough to ascend. After all, if they couldn’t muster up enough power to go back on this world, why would they have a chance on a higher one? Usually, they’ll spend most of their lives on that world, before eventually growing strong enough to go back off of slow, steady cultivation. However, they come back disgraced, unable to reach the frontier, despite being leagues more powerful than anyone else on their world. The ‘Chosen breaker’, some people call it, due to all the geniuses that fail to reach it.”
She looked each of them in the eyes, gauging their reactions.
“With all that being said, I know exactly how to reach it, and I intend to do just that, eventually. Are you all alright with that?”
“Yes!” Seira and Rynn shouted simultaneously.
Kiro hesitated, glancing at the fire to avoid their gazes. Would he really be cut out for a journey like that? A journey that crushed even people like Seira?
"...of course," he managed to sputter.
“Hey.”
Kiro felt a hand on his back, and turned to see Aer had appeared next to him. He knew that this offer was too good to be true! Now was when she kicked him back to the Hong clan to be deemed a traitor, or, ever worse, left him on this world, stranded forever. Sure, Seira and Rynn might have been ambitious enough to go along with her, but he was just being realistic. There was a reason that he was judged to be a Sun. With latent talent that miniscule, would he even stand a chance? At least before, he had been progressing.
“Kiro, hey.”
Aer waved a hand in front of his face.
“It’s ok if you don’t want to make the climb, Kiro. The world of mystics may be a cruel and unforgiving one, but that doesn't mean I have to be that way. Just stay with us, until you feel good enough to survive by yourself. I’ll train you up to the point where you’ll be safe no matter what.”
He blinked.
“Thank you, honored Saint.”
“Enough with this ‘honored Saint’ stuff. You guys are my apprentices, just call me Aer.”
“Thank you, Aer.”
She pulled him in, and he just stayed there, leaning on her shoulder.
“Really, thank you.”