Through continual practice and training, Gregory and his party continued improving at an alarming rate, which they discovered was necessary when they arrived at the human capital. It turned out that Sean had outleveled even them, and utilizing high class magic they found out he was a level 47 lesser god. All of his personal guards were level 90 or higher demi-gods, and many of the soldiers in the city were of the demi-god or legendary quality, although the levels varied highly throughout, the demi-gods only reaching the lower levels, while the legendary ranked soldiers were between the fifties all the way up to a hundred. The overall levels frightened even the strongest of the group, since even if they all had higher base abilities, the sheer number of people that were threatening was immense. Gregory’s stats for a legendary being were numerically “impossible” by leveling alone, but that alone wouldn’t be enough to break the difference in two whole stages of levels. Those stages represented breakthroughs, breakthroughs that granted power and greater ability even in just regular humans. The higher the quality of a being was as well, the larger and more powerful a breakthrough became as well. It was possible that if Sean focused on the use of magic, his raw power with it would rival Gregory’s own. They had to be very wary and cautious of Sean, not to mention that he may have higher level classes as well, since his level and quality of being were so high, he would have been able to brute force through class breakthroughs as well. Gregory having the class of True Magic Adept and Magic Knight Initiate gave him powerful abilities, but Sean was likely to have something at least as good as True Magic Initiate being a whole two stages ahead of Gregory, even if he didn’t get any of his classes up with anything but class points.

They had no idea how it was possible, but after Gregory summoned the “gods” to him to talk with them, he discovered that they were actually only lesser gods themselves, and that they were only not normally on the planet because they had accepted an offer to become immortal arbiters of the will of the high gods. They also informed the group that once a person reached the status of a lesser god, they were given the right to choose between being an arbiter of the high gods, or remaining on the planet they came from. Another advantage of reaching the rank of lesser god was that they earned a “god” power. This power they gained was an ability truly befitting of one with the title “god”, while they weren’t true gods in the sense of the word, their rank and power was described as such due to the massive breakthrough that occurred at that rank and the gaining of their “god” ability. The beings let the group know that even with their help, challenging one who belongs on this world with that title would not be an easy feat, especially when they had an army of legendary ranks and a personal guard filled with demi-gods. Those at the rank of demi-god gained immunity to external “god” powers less than the rank of “god”, and so could only be fought with sheer power alone. While the one at the legendary rank could be fought off with their unique powers, doing so would leave them able to do little else due to the number. The only real way for the party to really defeat Sean and prevent a real apocalypse from occurring would be to obtain the rank of lesser god themselves, and then fight Sean before the world collapsed.

It turned out that there were three types of “god” powers; the most common was external type powers which would impact people outside of the user with some sort of boon or bane, then there were internal powers which improved a person’s individual powers, and then the rarest were reality powers which granted the ability to manipulate or better manipulate the real world through the use of magic. The overall split of powers was roughly ninety-five percent, five percent, and only roughly a hundredth of one percent. Some even luckier managed to have two powers at the same time, but it was unknown how such happenings occurred. Normally, actual reality warping through magic was impossible. This rule applied even to Eric’s use of teleportation and time “manipulation”. What he did was actually a localized stasis ability using less mana, and while the teleportation was a form of low level reality manipulation, it had its limits and could not be used to the level of an actual reality manipulator. While all magic was technically warping reality, even magic had its own set of rules and costs, and would end once the cost could no longer be maintained. Actual reality warping was quite different they were explained, because they only had an upfront cost, and then sustained permanent impact through that one cost. While the costs were usually higher, they weren’t much higher and the effects being permanent through that slightly higher cost made actual reality warping a much more powerful ability. Another example of the power differences between actual reality warping and regular magic was that magic had little to no impact on anti-magic stones, metals, and enchantments, but reality warping could easily tear apart such things with no more than a thought.

Such powers that affected reality were currently only seen in ten beings currently alive, and only about a hundred out of everybody that had ever reached the stage of “god”. Examples of external powers were things like giving mass boons or banes to people, with very little to no cost, and controlling whom they would work on. Another example, but one that was rarer, were abilities that would enable control over others on either a strictly physical level, or even control their minds and emotions to gain full control over a person. Internal powers on the other hand granted more power than external powers could, but they were also more limited in scope. While external powers could even go so far as controlling others with their abilities, internal powers could only improve one's own abilities. Most of the time, this would be a full physical boost, a full mental boost, a full on boost to all abilities, or a much more focused boost that would usually result in even greater focusing of one’s gains. Of course, like all things, the extent of the powers boiled down to the individual. There were some that saw immense gains from a boost to every ability while the next person had a “god” ability that boosted only one stat without giving as much power as the one that boosted all. There were others that boosted one to such a degree that even one who had what seemed to be insane boosts to every ability would be toppled by the vast degree of power gained from that one boost.

Stolen novel; please report.

After learning all of this, they knew that their only choices were to level up as quickly as possible and obtain “godhood” so that they could fight on at least somewhat even footing with whatever powers Sean might possess. The “gods” that Gregory had summoned did the only thing they could do to assist in setting the group up for success, and that was giving them access to a special training ground used to quickly boost the powers of the demi-gods who were given express access to guard and protect the “heavenly realm” from outsiders. They admitted that the “heavenly realm” was actually just a highly secluded portion of the universe, one that would be nigh impossible to travel to without permission of one of the ten with reality warping powers. Those reality warping powers of the ten were also why they were considered “immortal” regardless of what their original races' lifespan would have been. Although, to say that they wouldn’t have immortality anyways is a hard thing to judge, since the higher a persons’ rank becomes, the longer their potential life becomes as well. Regardless, it was their requirement to make sure that this planet did not fall to ruin, and if Sean kept on going at his current rate, that is what would end up happening. So, giving these people access to what was normally reserved only for the demi-god guardians of the “heavenly realm” was well within their rights as long as it prevented the toppling of this world. After all, it was bad form to let an ascended being remain on a planet with only one person of the “god” rank on the planet. Especially when they also controlled a vast majority of the planet’s people of the legendary rank, and all the people presently of the demi-god rank on the planet. While they could grant temporary access only, even that would greatly assist in the speed at which they could raise their levels. Assuming the higher gods did not allow them to continue training there, they likely wouldn’t raise much fuss over it since the real goal was to bring balance, not to assist their desires for the planet.

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As for Sean, he was presently testing the true extent of his “god powers” that he had gained from his rank up. He had obtained a class by the name of Martial Wizard Initiate and got it leveled to five, the boons this class had granted him being enough to suppress entire forces of martial troops, and brutally overwhelm any troop of mages that came for him. On top of that, with his body's raw defensive ability and the armor he had built, he was practically invincible when it came to attacks against his person. His armor gave him enormous levels of magic resilience and made him totally immune to attacks below the level of a “god” level enemy, and his own body had almost full resilience to attacks below the level of a demi-god human and magic resilience capable of resisting the magical output of a human demi-god level foe with little more than small scratches or very localized first degree burns.

His “god power” enabled him to control the minds of others, regardless of race or opinion of him. Additionally, it enabled him to give a large boost to the overall power of anybody that was inside the area of one mile of him if they were presently under his control through a different ability. Put together, this was enough to make his army equivalent to an army of demi-gods and lesser gods instead of legendary people and demi-gods. Even though their class was of a lower tier, even his elite guard had power on a similar overall scale to his own under his “god power” buffing effects. These abilities greatly intrigued him, and only went to further bloat his own ego and make him believe that only he would be able to lead humanity into a role of importance on this new planet they were taking over.

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These flawed thoughts, when viewed by the “higher gods” that were set to overview any rash decisions made by the council of “lesser gods” in charge of this planet, were what made the decision to allow the people of that planet to be allowed access to the training grounds of the gods a decision that would not be revoked until they themselves were capable of handling that army alone. They did however let the lesser gods know that they would not be permitted to aid in the taking back of the planet if the people using the training grounds of the gods had even three manage to attain the rank of “god” within three weeks time. These three weeks were not an arbitrary number either, it was three days less time than it would take for the two worlds to fully merge. Once this time was over, they’d either be ready to face them alone, or the lesser gods in charge of the planet would help and then fall into a position of staying on that planet to manage things much more hands-on until such time as the planet was totally stable.