The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
> Rank 1
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> The first rank is essentially the “getting your feet wet” category. The identifying trait of a Rank 1 is essentially having and being able to use mana.
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> The first rank is categorized by three things: - Having at least one insight - Having at least one mana aspect - Having at least one ability, skill, technique, or spell
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Luzzi
Respawn Point DA-213-33-312, Farcem City, Motrendi
Sharp metal, cold concrete, and an unpleasant citrusy musk, these were the scents which had comprised the majority of the day. Despite the less than pleasant surrounds, Luzzi mostly didn’t mind being assigned to respawn duty. Especially given it came with a promised rift slot once complete. After being denied her request for a delving slot following the completion of her long recruitment day assignment, it was pleasant to have the promise of a reward, rather than just the possibility. The sudden disappearance of her previous assignment coordinator, after he failed to properly incentivize her, may have contributed to her new coordinator’s willingness to properly work with her.
Rubbing her paws together in bright amusement her tail twitched slightly behind her where it hooked up in a C facing her back. Although her tail split into two distinct limbs a bit further than half-way down its length, she had them wrapped around each other so they acted largely as a single unit. Generally, she wouldn’t bother showing such contrition, but her partner in this task commanded respect without asking for it. Primarily due to an unstable personality, mixed with a powerful path. Ravavka sat straight in the chair which was shaped directly from the living metal which made up the room and everything within. The Hazzabi’s scent was constantly shifting, though always carrying a tang of citrus and sweat.
While Luzzi had no trouble discerning the physical shape of things though scent and hearing, she cared little about what others looked like and generally did not dwell on it overly much. The mental image she held within her mind was primarily to read the emotions of others and navigate her surroundings. Specific details such as color, texture, feature size, these were irrelevant. It was the aroma of other beings which she examined and formed opinions based on. The very moment Ravavka had been introduced to her, Luzzi had known she would be wise to tread lightly around him. The thought had been proven by several unfortunate respawnees who questioned his barked orders.
Still, the arrangement was far from unpleasant. Unlike many other beings, Ravavka appeared more than content to sit in silence. He spent most of his time interfacing with the UICI, likely reading, researching, perhaps even programming modules. The Hazzabi were well known to be among the best natural developers in the world, after all. Her own pursuits while awaiting whoever the next unfortunate would be, was somewhat more productive. She had acquired a new insight seed, the minor boon her previous coordinator had provided her, and she was considering it. The seed itself was aligned with the path she chosen to walk, The Path of the Unseen Many, which had been formed originally by a soamrik of all species. Despite being aligned to her path, the insight within rang hollow in Luzzi’s heart. “Every shadow hides behind an object.”
Even the words themselves felt ridiculous. They were true, obviously, every seed was. There was a vast difference between knowing the phrase of an insight, and gaining that insight. Seeds, like the one she had unconsciously removed from one of the many pouches strapped around her body, were measured in centimeters or less. Despite their small size, they held a truth within them. A truth which would be absorbed upon consumption.
A path was not comprised of specific insights, per say. Rather a path was a guide to an understood and expected conclusion. The Frazzlen faction demanded all of their contractees decide upon and walk a specific path. At least, they tried to demand as much. The one thing which no contract could truly dictate was the shape of one’s soul. It was certainly possible for a contract to remove ownership of one’s own flesh, even their thoughts. A being’s soul, though, was held sacred and protected. Not protected by the gods or any other being, but by the very world itself. Even the most powerful being upon the most expansive path of contracting and manipulation could not force the shape of another’s soul.
That was not to say the factions could not direct a being to make the choice they preferred. Knowing the exact insights a person held could often be used to determine their blind spots and weaknesses, after all. Factions understood their members would not be under their power forever. As such, they maintained dossiers of the insights and mana aspects that were developed while they were. This provided them a strong basis for countering ex members if they became disgruntled and tried to seek vengeance. This precaution was generally seen as wise, given the large number of beings who did indeed resent whichever faction convinced them to sign hundreds or even thousands of their years away. Not that some didn’t excel. For every ten hate-filled enemies a faction created through their contracting practices, they acquired one life-long member who truly believed in their cause.
Flicking the seed into the air, Luzzi caught it and stuffed it back into one of her pouches at random. Within the many pockets and pouches strung across her body, she held many trinkets and small items of interest. Collecting was her greatest joy. Especially given the habit tended to annoy her ‘superiors.’ She decided then, that this seed would simply be a part of her collection. The insight it contained did not suit what she wished to be. It would synergize with some of her other insights, certainly, but she believed the synergies would also introduce new limitations which she currently didn’t have.
A coppery scent suddenly filled the chamber. She focused her attention to the far end of the rectangular room and heard Ravavka’s head rise to watch as well. The inability to see rarely bothered Luzzi. In fact, she rarely even thought about it. Her inability to perceive the purportedly beautiful coalescence of many colored kaleidoscopic lights forming into a body was one of the few things she regretted not being able to experience due to her lack of sight. Even through her illusions, she had no sense of sight.
Lacking sight, however, afforded Luzzi the opportunity to experience the absolutely beautiful convergence of scents and sounds. Deep base notes well beyond a human or elf’s range of hearing wove together with pitches so high as to shatter matter if it were to be loosed fully. More extraordinary still was the unique bouquet which slowly formed. Each being she witnessed spawning had an entirely unique composition of scents which were the purest and most unadulterated essence of their unique fragrance. There had never been a respawn scent which wasn’t pleasing, even if she found the final product after the body was fully formed to be less than enjoyable.
This time was no exception as earthy tones rose through the room’s floor, ignoring the many layers of warding protections woven into the metal. A perfume of roses and lilacs mixed with nutmeg and witching wood rushed through the walls, similarly unconcerned with the meddling of mere gods. From the heavens descended a sharp tang of ozone and burning fire. All together, they combined and became an indescribable attar entirely unique.
Oddly, Luzzi felt she recognized the smell. Allowing a whole set of minutes to pass, the song ended with a sudden final note. The unique scent settled and she knew a flash of brilliant light concluded the respawn. Standing at the other end of the room was a human woman. As all newly respawned were, she was clean and clothed in a simple grey jumpsuit. The question of why everyone was clothed upon being respawned was simple, the gods willed it so. The respawn itself, of course, did not create clothing for a being. One of the many, many enchantments and rituals woven into the walls of each of these respawn room facilitated the function, just as the arrival stage was.
Process complete, the newcomer began to speak at the same time as Ravavka. “Uh, hi… I…” “State your name and faction.”
A beat of silence, then the woman said, “My name’s Willow. And you?”
Odd, that voice was certainly familiar, but Luzzi couldn’t quite place from where.
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Willow
Respawn Point DA-213-33-312, Farcem City, Motrendi
As the darkness finally retreated, Willow found herself in a room which seemed to be made of a single piece of gray. What the material was, she had no clue. It didn’t look metallic, or stone-like, or woody. It just looked gray.
Once her eyes had cleared, she noticed there were two creatures sitting in what looked like those uber-modern cup chairs that rich people had in their houses, or at least that’s what she’d on various entertainment programs. They certainly couldn’t be comfortable. At least… Not for a human, maybe they’re fine for these… People?
“Uh, hi…” Willow started, “I-” She cut off as she realized the creature with all the eyes on the left had spoken at the same time as her. Parsing out what he’d said she decide to give a little, “My name’s Willow. And you?”
“My name is irrelevant, respawnee. Provide your faction name.” The creature had a man’s voice, deep and sonorous, with a bored inflection. He was probably one of the scariest things she’d ever seen. Dull grey, craggy and pitted, skin. A mouth split almost the entire length of the square face, wrapping around out of sight on the side furthest from Willow. Hie teeth were all flat, human-like, other than two sets of canines which had seemed to flash as he spoke. Five eyes stared at her from the very top of the creature’s head, just below the curve of its bald head. A huge eye maintained an unblinking gaze, while two more eyes were arranged on either side in a line. The center eye was nearly four times the size of a human eye, set centered its shape was oddly symmetrical. Each of its other eyes were half the size of the large one.
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Besides the scary mouth, lack of nose or eyebrows, or any other normal facial feature, it was mostly humanoid. The arms and legs appeared lanky and thin, but other than that fairly normal besides the seven extremely long fingers and an equally long thumb. He was wearing what looked like a black and orange sailor’s uniform, lapels and all.
“Ah… No… Don’t think I’m gonna give out personal info to some folks I just met. Sorry for the inconvenience.” She did her best to sound conciliatory rather than annoyed at being demanded to do things.
She noticed a twitching motion from the other sitting creature. This one looked like a kind of cross between a koala and a lemur, if you were to remove the resulting creature’s eyes entirely. Where the eyes should be there was just a flat plane of silky looking white fur. Honestly, still pretty cute! That fur looks sooooo soft! The twitching had come from its ears, which were flicking rapidly as it rubbed and squeezed its hands together in an even rhythm. Honestly, it seemed almost concerned or distressed. Not sure why, that’s just the vibe. Those twitching ears were large triangles with tufts of long fur at their tips, though the triangle bent a few centimeters from the end, making them flop slightly. The creature wore a similar uniform.
Willow’s eyes snapped back to her left as the many eyed man slowly stood. He had a wide smile, well surely any smile on him is wide, which seemed a mix of malice and excitement. The motion made her realize he was just over a meter tall. Why’s he look so intimidating while so short?!
A momentary flash of memory brought her back to hoards of pop-hoppers. They were about the same size as this guy, though she suspected they weren’t nearly within his league. Not liking the slow way he was stalking forward, joined by that odd smile, Willow subtly shifted into a better stance to fight.
The deep voice didn’t sound bored anymore, it sounded excited, “Last Chance. Name. Your. Faction.”
“Are you threatening me?”
“Yes.”
The little man was still very slowly edging toward her. The room was only somewhere around ten meters long, so it wasn’t like he couldn’t close faster if he wanted. He was clearly trying to intimidate her into compliance. The simple agreement that he was threatening her, at least, relieved her concern that she might be reading the situation wrong. She’d thought a few times about her first few minutes in this new world, when that big guy had tried to stop her from leaving without signing a horrible contract. Although she didn’t exactly regret punching him and then leaving him to recover, she did sometimes wonder if it had been a misunderstanding. Especially after learning from that guy at the desk that most of the recruiters weren’t even human.
Seeing the aggressive grey man take another step, Willow consoled herself that at least this time things were clear.
“I don’t like being told what to do. Let’s try again, why don’t you be polite and let me know your name. We can talk from there.” She offered a reasonable way to break the tension.
He leapt forward, fast. His body exploded into a blindingly white blur as he flashed forward and struck her in the gut.
“Guh…” She gasped out incoherently before crashing against the wall. She felt her knees hit the floor, hands catching herself. Her body felt weak. She knew for certain that little force shouldn’t have broken anything, she’d been falling off of mountains for crying out loud! Despite knowing all that, she coughed up blood and thought a rib had cracked.
“Faction.” The mirthful voice spoke again.
Annoyed, Willow called her discipline mana and cycled it through the pattern for her back into it skill. For whatever reason, the skill hadn’t automatically started fixing her up. It was also hard to push her mana through the correct pattern. For some reason it kept trying to veer off.
Then another voice, chimed in, low feminine, soft, and silky, “Whatever progress you made on your soul nexus and body enhancements are gone with your death, remember. Don’t challenge Ravavka if you don’t want to go back to wait for another respawn.”
As Willow forced her head up, the man’s middle eye flicked toward the eyeless-lemur-woman in clear annoyance, but he nodded and tried again. “Just tell me your faction and I won’t kill you.” He sounded disappointed.
Having managed to get her oddly unruly mana to take the proper shape of her skill, Willow felt her body quickly recover. Sighing in relief, she stood back up and narrowed her eyes at her attacker. I can’t see him move, so I need to keep an eye out for even the smallest twitch. Then her mind caught up to what she’d heard and she blinked, “Uh… What? My progress…”
Panicked, Willow turned her gaze inward. She found her dojo, perfectly spotless with her self-avatar wearing a gi with a simple phoenix patch on its shoulder where coach used to have his crossed stave and gun symbol. It indicated she was a teacher, rather than a student. That’s new… Huh, I guess I didn’t spend much time in here after figuring out more about my instruction mana.
Then she looked at her body mural. Unlike her mana and dojo, that was definitely different. The skill pattern wasn’t there at all, all of the areas she’d enforced with xp were back to their original states. Mouth falling open, Willow groaned in dismay.
A sharp laugh which felt at odds with the deep voice came from the little many-eyed bossy guy. “First time respawning? Didn’t believe you’d actually lose everything like you were told? Thought you were the exception?” His voice was derisive. Costic.
Returning her attention outward, she frowned at him, “Why are you such a jerk?”
She saw his leg tense. Moment of focus activated. He was less than a centimeter from her, blazing fist positioned to strike her directly in the forehead. Given the damage she’d taken just from a gut punch, and one that she was now guessing he hadn’t put much strength into, she was sure this one would kill her.
A return strike was her immediate instinct, but she forced herself to be still. Her moment of focus was currently expanded to its default area, which had only grown larger as she became stronger. It easily filled the room, freezing both the man and the furry woman. Checking her mana reserves, Willow found she could easily fuel her ability for ten minutes if she didn’t act at all. Each action she took would use a larger chunk of her mana.
Although her maximum mana had grown since initially discovering and experimenting with her ability, the main difference was that she’d learned how to use it efficiently. Maybe too efficiently. Looking back, she realized with some chagrin that she was pretty sure she’d been releasing that crazy monster from her ability each time she hit it to reduce the mana cost. It’d been a habit she’d learned while fighting pop-hoppers. With them, she could release them after hitting them since they’d die immediately after. The amalgams wouldn’t die instantly like that, but she could still release her hold on them for a few moments after hitting them, before reestablishing her influence. I literally lost because I got arrogant and was trying to fight conservatively.
Annoying as the thought might be, it was only half accurate. No, I lost because I fought like I’d trained myself to. I wasn’t thinking through my strategy. Why not? The answer was obvious. Because she’d both never had the luxury and never had the need to stop and think in the middle of a fight. All the opponents she’d faced up until that final insane pop-hopper final evolution had been little more than punching bags. Before, on Earth, she simply couldn’t stop time for everyone but herself to give herself breathing room.
But I used my focus to think ahead a bit. It’s a mix. I got arrogant, and I neglected to train new habits to match my new abilities. Two things I need to fix. Resolution made, she turned her mind back to the task at hand. The only enemy she had here was this guy. The fluffy woman hadn’t sounded like she was angry or even annoyed, and she’d tried to warn her.
Path made clear, Willow reshaped her area of influence. She might have been able to just excluded the woman from its effects if she tried, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t want to though. If she was actually an enemy she wanted her to be stopped in her tracks when she tried to attack. The creature’s hands clenched and unclenched twice, then it seemed to become confused. Slowly, it pursed its lips. Although she didn’t hear anything, Willow thought she was whistling.
“Are… You still there?” Came the uncertain question.
Taking a deep breath, Willow answered, “I am, yes.”
Ears twitched quickly and the creature’s tail, which had been posed kind of like a scorpion’s tail above her head, suddenly split in two. The two ends begun to lash around in an erratic, but slightly hypnotic, pattern. It didn’t seem like an attack, so Willow just waited.
“Is Ravavka still here as well?” Was the next question.
“Yeah, he’s just… Taking a break.” Curiously, Willow noted that talking did cost a little extra mana, but not much. Not as much as any other action would have. Most of the testing she’d done had confirmed that all actions were essentially equal to her ability, they all cost the same amount of mana whether it was jumping as high as she could, or taking one step. Speaking appeared to be something of an exception. Each sentence cost her maybe half a percent of her overall mana, which was significantly less than the two percent or so that any other action would cost.
Still, it tightened her timeline from ten minutes down to… Less. She didn’t feel like doing the math right now. the “I see… I am quite surprised you were able to reform one of your insights and generate enough mana to stop him within less than five minutes of re-spawning.” There was a clear question in the creature’s question, but Willow wouldn’t be sharing anything quite yet.
“Sorry, I’m not in much of a mood to share after being bossed around then attacked.”
Fluffy hands rubbed furry face. Adorable. “I understand. I also don’t appreciate being commanded. My name is Luzzi. If you can leave him here, perhaps we can leave together and speak like civilized beings?”
Hesitating for a minute, Willow glanced at the guy who had been trying to kill her. Again. I’ve already died twice and this guy wanted to make it a third?! Three strikes, you’re out! No thanks.
Leaving him by using her ability was an option, though she would have to stretch and twist it as far as she could. She was certain this guy would be chasing after her as soon as he got free and realized she’d left. That’d be fine, if she was faster than him. As it was, he’d catch up and kill her before she even knew he was about to arrive.
That left two options. He had a knife on his belt, she could take it and kill him. She made a face, it felt extreme. He might deserve it for being a jerk, but… Killing someone who’s trying to kill me is entirely justifiable. I wouldn’t even feel guilty. Probably. More importantly, though, was how her possible ally would react. If this guy was important to her, it might make that polite conversation she offered impossible.
I could just ask her if she cares if I kill him… Wow, how brazen… On the other hand… “Do you mind if I kill him?”
A moment’s hesitation, “I would prefer you don’t, if you don’t have to. If he dies, I will be penalized for failing to act properly to protect my partner for the day.”
Interesting. She wouldn’t care if it didn’t cause her harm, then? Deciding now wasn’t the time to analyze that, she decided option two would have to work. Hopefully.
“If this doesn’t work he’ll probably kill me. If that happens… Uh… Thanks for being less insane than this guy.”
She didn’t wait for a reply, pulling strands of both her discipline and instruction mana into a carefully balanced packet. Her spell, imperative command was formed. She slammed a fist directly into the frozen man’s forehead with the instruction, fall unconscious, with all of her strength.
Despite no longer being super-human, Willow was still not a weak girl. She was certain the strike would leave a mark when the guy woke up. She noted that more than half of her mana had been eaten up between using the spell and hitting the guy without releasing him. Deciding to go for broke, she hit him one more time. Once more sending a packet of imperative command into him. Feeling drained, down to less than ten percent of her instruction mana and maybe one percent of discipline, she made sure she was clear of her enemy’s prior strike, released her ability and slumped before catching herself.
Taking steadying breaths, Willow fed the annoyance, uncertainty, and anger she felt into her ability, refueling her discipline mana by about a fourth. She was surprised to find herself too drained of emotion to further refill herself. It’s been a crazy… However long I was in that empty space. I want a nap.
Her opponent was laying at her feet, unconscious. Willow wasn’t entirely sure if she’d needed to hit him twice, but didn’t regret it either way.
“What a wonderful display! Ravavka is quite intimidating. His path is well suited for direct confrontation, and he’s unstable. I am very impressed with your ability to take down a rank six as a rank one!”
“Ehh, thanks.” Willow waved it off, “But I’m rank four.”
She stretched, enjoying the rapidly twitching ears and flicking tails. She assumed those things meant Luzzi was awestruck.