The Comprehensive and Concise Guide to Ranking by Chezly Falthrick
A Summary of Rankings and Their Associated Milestones
> Rank 10
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> Rank 10 requires forming a domain.
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> Rank 10 is the first exponential expansion of power. Scholars measure the difference between rank 1 and rank 9 as a semi linear growth with expanded utility and heightened efficiency. The measure between 9 and 10 is measured as 9^((IRG/IBG)*MACG). Where IRG=Insight Refinement Grade, IWG=Insight Breadth Grade, MACG=Mana insight coefficient grade.
Luzzi
Csev’s Caff, Farcem City, Motrendi
The human was clearly overwhelmed. It wasn’t all that surprising, given she’d never seen a real city. Whatever she had on her tutorial undoubtedly paled before reality. Even the largest tutorial societies where insignificantly small. Using her UICI, Luzzi hooked into the bistro’s servicing system and followed the vague directional feedback it provided to lead her toward their table.
Slipping through the isles of private booths. They passed the single-humanoid booths and turned left. The feeling of following an unscented, unheard, something, was disconcerting. Fortunately, Luzzi was long used to it by now. She generally came to Csev’s Caff for lunch at least once every twelveday or so. The directions from the UICI had them turn several more times, before it turned her toward a small booth which would comfortably fit herself and Willow but no more. The bistro provided an excellent mix of utility and comfort. She’d never had to wait for a table, but still had plenty of privacy and enough space to sit without scrunching.
Sliding into one side of the table, Luzzi was amused to note Willow’s head swiveling in every direction as she slid in opposite herself. “I will assume you’ve never been to a city restaurant?”
Willow’s head shook so Luzzi continued, “Then you may not have noticed your UICI has a new option available. If you focus on it for a moment, you can pull up a menu. Generally, the menu would include prices and would pull directly from your UICI currency. Today, I have set our stay as a gift on my account. Please order whatever you like. You should see no prices, as most civilized beings consider it rude to make prices known when giving a gift.”
Another nod, then Willow asked, “Any recommendations? I’m starving. Maybe something lighter though, I’m also super tired. I might fall asleep in the booth if I get anything too heavy.” The human showed her teeth in what was likely an impressive display of joy or humor or one of the other innumerable reasons they opened their mouths. Humans.
Thankful she would not need to listen to the menu to provide her suggestion, Luzzi tapped her forehead, just above her nose, in a confirmation. “I have heard many humans enjoy ‘mac-en-cheese.’ It is something of a specialty here.”
The human’s mouth opened intentionally showing her teeth. Surprise, probably. “Uuuh… Yeah, sounds good!” After a few moments, Willow nodded her head, “Yeah, that sounds good. I ordered it. This place is huge! How do they cook enough for everyone? How do they get things from the kitchen to the booths without the meals getting cold?”
“It’s quite simple. They coordinate their staff so that orders come in from sections which are either directly above or directly below us. Then, when our meals are ready they will place them in the chute to either be sent up, or down.” She pointed toward the wall where a generally nondescript protrusion jutted slightly from the wall. Her timing was excellent, as it slid open at that very moment and two bottles of liquid were gently pushed out onto the table by a mechanical arm.
Taking hers, knowing it by the distinctive scent of hishushu, she pushed Willow’s to her. She appeared to have ordered water with a hint of citrus. Perhaps a seltzer. She’d tried one of those before, it hadn’t been to her tastes.
After a few moments of silence, she decided to press slightly, “Since this is your first respawn…” She stopped, trying to find the right words. After a beat she just shook her head and tried for the direct approach, “I am certain that you somehow have more power than expected. However, it’s not possible for someone to respawn with their soul nexus in tact. You seem quite confident that you are still rank four. I don’t wish to sound patronizing, but, have you checked your nexus yet?”
“Yep! Everything’s the same as before I died. Well… No, not exactly. Everything I put into my body, including a skill, is gone.” She frowned deeply at that.
Luzzi pulled at her ear, tail tips flicking about anxiously. “That is… Odd. Almost worrying. Generally non-standard respawns indicate one of two things. Either the respawnee has a UA which alters something about it, which is exceedingly rare, or they were affected by something that caused the change. The later is almost never purely positive, even if at first glance it appears to be. It is rather rude to ask, but I don’t have another way to help, do you have any UA which may explain the oddity?”
Lips scrunching and wiggling about her face, Willow seemed to be considering. It didn’t take too long for her to reply, “I’m not sure. I have a quest to get a UA, but I don’t know if I already have any. I…” She hesitated, then shrugged, “I didn’t know I had my insights either, though. I had to figure that out.”
That revelation stunned Luzzi. How could anyone not know they had an insight? The insight had to be vocalized. Or… Did they? That had been her understanding, though now that she thought about it there had to be more options. She supposed in the case of beings without vocal chords there had to be an alternative. Maybe that alternative could work even if the being had the ability to speak. Though, if she didn’t miss her mark this girl was one from the very latest Earth tutorial.
It had taken a while during their walk to figure out where she’d recognized her voice from, but she was fairly certain now. This girl had joined one of her more naive recruits at one of the directing desks. She’d left them both there and hadn’t worried about it further. After all, she’d made her quota that day! She’d finally been reassigned to something else. Her tail slammed into the booth wall as she lashed it angrily as she remembered the meeting with her soon-to-be-respawning assignment coordinator. He’d congratulated her and assigned her to respawn duty without a single proper reward for a job well done.
“Luzzi?” Willow’s uncertain voice came through. “My apologies. I was just remembering something unpleasant. It’s possible for you to have UAs you’re unaware of. They are far less… Obvious… Than insights. Did you have any ‘achievements’ coming out of your tutorial?”
“Oh, yeah, sure! Loads!” Willow answered happily, taking another sip. The little wall plate slid open again and their meals were pushed out toward them. Luzzi passed Willow the plate which smelled of sharp cheese, spicy meat, and a tangy pickled vegetable. It actually smelled fairly good, she’d have to try it sometime. Today, she pulled her own favorite to her. Umbushi was a meal served within a crystalline structure of umbu, within which was a perfectly steamed meat with a vegetable sauce. The harshly cold taste of the umbu paired so perfectly with the semi-sweet meat she’d selected and her mouth began to water before she even broke into the shell.
“That’s pretty. It looks kind of like a rock though, do you eat rocks?”
That caused Luzzi’s hands to redirect from reaching for her fork and knife to rub her face down past her lip. “Ah! It is always nice to be reminding how limited the tutorial’s foods are.”
Taking up the fork and knife she broke the crystal and cut into the thick meat within. She lifted the piece, which was covered in the umbu shards, for Willow to see. “It is a meat dish. The umbu is like a condiment, or a seasoning. Try it!”
Excited to have someone try her favorite, she pushed the fork across the table to Willow. Although she looked surprised, the human didn’t hesitate to take the fork and take the bite. Passing the fork back, she wore a complicated expression.
“How does it taste cold? And… Metallic? Are you sure that’s safe for humans to eat?”
Putting the fork down, Luzzi rubbed her face again, then tapped her forehead and set to eating.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” Willow muttered across the table, before she dug into her own meal.
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Willow
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Csev’s Caff, Farcem City, Motrendi
Sighing, Willow slowly forced herself to slide out of the booth. She’d finished the shockingly good mac-n-cheese and she knew if she didn’t stand she’d fall asleep. Although Luzzi had, so far, seemed relaxed and not easily offended, she didn’t really want to test her patience.
The conversation during the meal had mostly been small talk. Willow had learned that Luzzi had worked for hundreds of years as a recruiter during arrival days, but had recently been moved over to staff a respawn room. That lead them to discuss Willow’s own arrival, and it turned out that Luzzi had been controlling that weird fuzzy woman who the… Uh… Berry? guy at the desk had mentioned was probably an illusion. It was an illusion! Specifically, it was Luzzi’s illusion!
That might have become dangerous ground, as Willow really wanted to demand why she’d ripped Naomi off so badly. She’d ultimately decided to just change the conversation, though. That lead to asking about the UAs. As it turned out, there was a UICI module which allowed you to see your UAs, because of course there is. And it cost a fortune, because of course it does.
There was another option, though. There were these large pillars which were called ‘eternity nodes’ which were like public access points for some important, but expensive, UICI functions. It was apparently how most people reviewed their UAs and other important information. Luzzi said she’d take Willow there next. Which meant she had to stay awake.
Seeing - hearing? - that Willow had stood, Luzzi slid out and waved for her to follow. This time she was prepared as the stepped out onto the incredibly busy street. Mostly. She tried to focus more on the people, or creatures in some cases, they passed. As she’d noted before, the variety was extraordinary! It was almost hard to find two of the same species, or it would have been had there not been thousands of people within view no matter where she looked. Humans appeared to be somewhat of a minority, at least in this area, with the most common species being what looked like werewolves. They were large creatures about two and a half meter tall; lanky, with long snouts, scruffy looking fur, and sharp claws on their oversized paws and feet both.
She didn’t see any other creatures that looked like Luzzi. When she asked about it, she replied by slapping her paws together, sliding her left paw from the base of her right hand out away from her body. Asking about that lead to a conversation about common body Paavaras language. As it happened, a sliding clap away from the body was kind of like a shrug. It was an expression of either ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t care’, which were generally seen as the same thing within Paavaras societies. The face rubbing thing was a form of showing amusement usually, kind of like a laugh. One hand meant amusement, or slight happiness, like a smile. Two hands meant a full laugh, though where the hand stopped dictated the amount of amusement felt.
Luzzi warned that while most humanoids tended to follow the ‘human standard’ way of showing emotions and expressing themselves, not every species did. Cultures were as innumerable as the stars. She also corrected Willow saying ‘people’ and explained ‘beings’ was more correct. Beings apparently included every thinking thing with a soul. That included a lot more than traditional ‘people’. Robots, undead, plants, sentient enchanted objects, elementals, and more.
Overall, Willow greatly enjoyed the half hour walk! Though she felt partially dead on her feet as they entered one of the park-like areas Willow had noticed before. Gargantuan trees created a gentle canopy which partially dimmed the lights from even taller buildings and the pitiful white sun. That had been another thing Luzzi confirmed, the silver orb in the sky wasn’t a moon. It was a distant star. No one knew how the very first beings who arrived from tutorials had survived to teraform the planet, as there was no way it could naturally support life.
Even here, the press of bodies was constant. Though there was much less urgency in this peaceful slice of nature, Willow and Luzzi were still generally within a couple steps of another person. Being… You’re trying to think more about others, remember, Willow? Still, weird that ‘people’ is considered exclusionary…
Finally, they made it to their destination. A pillar of what Willow would have assumed was quarts sat in the center of the park, with a ring of stonework around it, tables setup to allow beings to sit and enjoy the ambiance. Luzzi brought them directly up to it and gestured, “When you touch it, you’ll get some options.”
Reaching out, Willow’s UICI popped up in front of her unbidden as soon as she made contact.
ETERNITY NODE
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Options
* Universal Achievements
* Quests
* Soul Nexus Ranking
* Send Message
* More…
Although it was tempting to go searching through the entire list of possible options under ‘More…’, Willow was too tired. She needed to just do what she’d come here to do. Selecting ‘Universal Achievements’ Willow reviewed the resulting screen and quickly copied it all into her journal app.
UNIVERSAL ACHIEVEMENTS
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TUTORIAL
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ULTA COMPETITIVE
Compete in over 500 officially judged contests
All rewards are increased by 2%.
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SERIAL VICTOR
You stand at the pinnacle of multiple world-scale competitions, showing none should presume themselves your better.
All caps and limits have been removed.
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COMBAT VETRAN (GLOVED)
You are a veteran of combat, at least the sporting kind.
+2% xp gain through combat, additional +5% experience through competitive non-lethal combat.
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FAMILY TIES
You have forged unbreakable ties with your family and hold them in high esteem.
You will be notified if any of your family members arrive within reality.
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TRUE FRIEND GROUP
Make at least three true friends.
Social engineering powers are 20% less effective on you.
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SELFLESS
Give up something precious to you, for the sake of someone you love.
Positive karma.
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DETERMINED
Retrieve something precious to you that you’ve lost.
You are 200% less likely to lose or break any item you feel an emotional attachment to.
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DREAM AGAIN
Having lost your dream, you have picked up the pieces and made something new. A new passion, a new dream, a new goal.
You are 200% more resilient to existential stressors.
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SELF OBSESSED
Live most of your life knowing you’re better than most other people.
Control type powers are 75% less effective on you.
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PIG HEADED
Pit your will against what others tell you, because you’re right and they’re wrong. Once you decide on something, you almost never change your mind..
Manipulation type powers are 30% less effective on you.
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LEGEND
Nearly everyone has heard about you, and after you’re gone your story will only grow. A minor accomplishment will become a monumental victory. Your friends’ achievements will be attributed to you. You are a shining example of human progress, ingenuity, determination, and victory. The gods of Olympus compete with your legend and fall short.
1. All universal achievements you hold are 200% more effective.
2. All achievements earned by your friends of family will be passed on to you, if they restart their tutorial.
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SYNERGISTIC ACHIEVEMENTS
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ULTRA COMPETITIVE, SERIAL VICTOR, COMBAT VETERAN (GLOVED)
You thirst for victory, in life and in combat.
All potential earned through a contest or non-lethal conflict is 400% more effective.
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FAMILY TIES, TRUE FRIEND GROUP, SELFLESS
You desire connection and empathy.
All beings will be more predisposed to like you and less likely to misunderstand good intentions.
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DETERMINED, DREAM AGAIN, UNBREAKABLE, SELF OBSESSED, PIG HEADED, LEGEND
Your soul is your own.
1. Your soul cannot be directly harmed by an external force.
2. You may modify your soul and path at will.
Altering ones path is not free.
3. Death will not alter your soul nexus and you will lose no potential allocated to any soul component.
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REALITY
No UA yet achieved in reality
“Oh.” Willow murmured. That explained some things. It also raised some new questions. One of those questions was whether ‘All beings will be more predisposed to like you…’ was considered a social engineering or a manipulation power. If someone else had defenses against those, would that be ineffective? Or was this something deeper? So many questions.
Before she allowed herself to get lost in questions, she backed out of the UA menu and selected “Send Message.” She was delighted to see the service was free from the eternity node. Taking her time, she wrote out messages to both Naomi and Jonah. She assured Jonah she was fine and encouraged him to not worry too much. For Naomi, she had a tougher time knowing what she should say. In the end she wrote a simple message telling her some of what she’d seen and telling her she was excited to meet back up. Given that their faction contracts demanded they stay with her, she was sure they’d be on their way as soon as possible.
Sighing, Willow suddenly felt all of her exhaustion roll out into a fluttering blanket which fluttered down onto her shoulders and wrap her snugly. Smiling wanly at Luzzi, she asked softly, “Any chance you know somewhere I could take a nap? I’m… Really tired.”
After a moment’s thought, Luzzi shrugged, “Sure. Did you get any answers?”
Willow nodded, “I have an AU which makes it so death doesn’t alter my soul nexus.”
If Luzzi had eyes, Willow thought they’d likely be huge. Her tail was whipping around wildly, both tips moving together in an almost hypnotizing manner. After a few beats, Luzzi rubbed the back of her left paw with her right, then waved in a “let’s go” gesture and began to lead Willow again.
“Thanks! Uh… Where are we going? I can’t really pay, I only have like… A hundred something rank two EBs…”
Tail flicking once hard was the only response she deigned to get. I need like a whole book on what she’s trying to say with her tail and hands and stuff. Urgh.
“It’s fine. You won’t need to pay. You can stay with me for tonight. I have a comfortable couch for you.” Huh, is that dry humor? Or is she entirely serious? Guess I’ll find out.