The training grounds in the heavenly realm were unique, even if all of the party were to enter at the same time, they would all be taken to an individual training zone. The zone was designed to be a challenge regardless of rank, and based solely on personal power. This meant that people with more combat potential at a lower rank would still face stronger challenges and may level up faster than people who were a higher rank with fewer combat skills or just a weaker offense. While this may seem like a worse way to train than to kill stronger enemies in a group, it also used the highest rank creature within the level that could be defeated by one’s own combat powers. For Gregory, he ran into a demi-god ranked opponent, one that was at the very top of the demi-god spectrum, the same went for Eric. Oddly enough, the rest of the group only faced opponents in the middle levels of the demi-god spectrum, ranging from level 44 to 67. Atlas and Lily faced the level 67 opponent, Elise was facing a level 65, Aurora faced a level 62, Caitlyn faced a level 61, Jessica faced a level 58, Alfred was facing a level 56, Katherine faced a level 49, and Tim faced the level 44.

The fights were also designed as such to improve the combat abilities a person possesses regardless of level or rank. The example would be Gregory and Eric facing opponents of such high caliber despite being at a similar or lower level as compared to the rest of the group. This significant difference in combat power is what enabled Gregory to catch up with the rest of the group in levels. Regardless of time spent, the stronger an opponent was, the faster a person would get experience off of them. Of course, if time spent was also small, then experience could be vastly greater even among people facing the same level of enemy. This was the case with Gregory, Lily, Elise, and Jessica. The leveling up times of these four were substantially reduced as compared to others in the same bracket, and the level of creatures they fought continued to rise faster the more they trained. With exception of course to Gregory, as his not being a demi-god was the only reason he was not fighting stronger opponents.

It took Gregory a week and a half before he finally reached demi-god rank, and when he did, he finally had opponents that really challenged his abilities to their fullest extent. He went from fighting enemies of the demi-god rank to enemies of standard “god” rank. He had also discovered a number of new classes, which improved his combat ability as well. He obtained High Mage from working on combining the raw magical powers of sorcerer with the elemental powers of wizard and some of the higher level advanced techniques that were acquired by him more recently, such as some of the sealing magic from grand runic mage and some of the conditional release magical abilities from elemental trapmaster. He also gained other classes due to his knowledge of seals, and combining that with his enchanting skills to really understand how to create magical seals. On top of that, he achieved classes that gave him the power to deal holy power as actual damage instead of just using it for the sake of healing others.

Another half-week, making for two weeks total time spent, got him to the level of lesser god, finally getting him his “god powers” which were reality altering powers and internal powers. The internal powers he gained focused entirely on his magical powers, granting his INT, WIS, and FTH boons while he had them active. This boon was a 50x total boost, granting him virtually unparalleled power in any kind of magic. With these added boons, it was likely that he would be able to at least combat Sean now, and probably even assist in holding off a good portion of his honor guard. At the end of two weeks, it was time for them all to meet up and collaborate for a day about their advancements before they would be sent back in for another six days to see how much further they could get. These gains in classes and levels also gave him immense gains in stats, getting him over 4000 wisdom, 3000 faith, and over 2000 intelligence just from classes and new magics. His gains between levels and classes also put his WIL and CHA at the planet’s highest granting him even greater power.

Eric on the other hand did not see the same gains. Having been practically on the cusp of demi-god already, he leveled up to demi-god much faster, but did not have a large increase in training speed once leveling up. He also gained a few new classes, and due to the knowledge from Gregory managed to achieve True Magic Adept, as well as improving his personal unique class to its third rank. Once getting to demi-god, his training speed did increase by some, since he could face into the god class with reliability. He still wasn’t pushing through at the same speed as Gregory until some of his magical classes improved, but he did see huge gains toward the end. He had also managed to attain lesser god, although his level was up to 30 by the time of the meet. The “god powers” he obtained were internal, offering a 40x boost to his intelligence, and a 25x boost to all other abilities.

Elise saw vast improvement as well, mostly because she had already been close to a few of the more advanced magical classes, and Gregory’s training with her had improved her combat prowess. Even though she didn’t have the same raw power that Gregory had with his immense stats and massive bonuses to magical might from being draconic, she did not lose to him when it came to understanding and real combat ability. With less leveling drawbacks, she managed to obtain demi-god within four days, and then was able to reach lesser god with a level of 3 by the end of the two weeks. She was also lucky enough to attain Internal “god powers” that improved all her abilities by a multiplier of 30, although since her abilities were more well rounded, she still couldn’t compare to somebody like Eric in magic since his base totals were stronger than hers in that field.

Lily and Jessica saw very similar growth despite facing enemies that were somewhat separated in level, mostly in part due to Jessica’s continued improvement to growth from remaining human as long as she did. Both had reached the cusp of becoming lesser-gods, being level 100 demi-gods with massive experience. The only thing they lacked was a trigger for their “god powers” to develop, which was unique to the individual.

Out of the others, only Atlas had managed to attain lesser-god. His “god powers” were external, but were unique in that they allowed the people selected to experience another’s experiences within the scope of their understanding. The largest use of it would enable people to bypass years of work aas long as they understood how a person reached where they were at the time. Another use was as a way to communicate in real time without using magic as a catalyst. All the others in the group had only managed to reach into the upper 90s of demi-god, which while massive in terms of advancement would not necessarily be enough to take out the honor guard of demi-gods and the army of legendary ranked opponents that would be up against when it would be time to face Sean.

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Sean meanwhile had been using his resources to level up as well. While it wasn’t at the same rate as the group that would be facing off against him, by the time the three weeks granted had finished, Sean was at the level of Low-god 2, with his honor guard having increased in number and being lesser-gods, and the army being made up mostly of demi-gods with legendary ranked people being used as common foot-soldiers. It was an army and a dominion that he believed to be unstoppable on the planet, and one that he could use to take over and rule his way if he so desired.

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At the end of the two weeks, when they all met, they exchanged their progress and abilities. As the lesser gods that brought them here listened, they were shocked by what they discovered. While it was true that even they could gain substantial power from the training grounds, an actual god rank would not be allowed to use them without express permission due to the requirements for opening it to them and the costs of keeping it active with them inside. Seeing that three of the eleven had reached a god-rank, and the others were all high-level demi-gods, they were more than just a little impressed. The improvements multipliers especially shocked them, almost as much as Gregory having an Internal and Reality Altering “god power”. While Gregory’s 50x boost was only equivalent to one full rank, in his case, for many it was even more substantial. On top of that, it was a total improvement to all of his magical abilities, meaning that in terms of magical might, he was able to challenge people of at least a rank higher that specialized in magic without pushing himself. Much like Gregory had massive boons to his magical abilities, Eric and Elise had relatively large boosts to their overall abilities, ones that enabled them to combat people of a higher rank than their own without any significant challenge. Even some of the strongest people that had decided to live in the “heavenly realm” had boosts that only went up to a 20x boost for the strongest of them, and the highest recorded multiplier previously had been a person who had a 30x boost to one ability. To see these people push their abilities so far was too much for even the lesser gods living in the heavenly realm to understand how far they might one day reach.

With the entire group sharing their new classes, and Atlas using his new “god power” to let the others experience his understanding of the classes, at least within their own understanding, was a massive boon as well. Those who had greater magical gifts were able to learn a few magical classes immediately, while those of them who were more focused on physical combat were able to learn from others. Jessica even gained a basic understanding of magic that enabled her to gain some basic abilities. Upon reporting their advancement to the higher gods above them, they were already quite pleased with the progress made, but unfortunately promised three weeks and also saw the current state of Sean and his army, so knew that it was likely that they would probably need the rest of the third week they were promised to actually be able to compete effectively against that many people.

Since there was a full 24 hours where they were not permitted inside the training grounds, Gregory and Elise used this time to spend the night in Elise’s room. Jessica did the same with Atlas, and Eric and Lily stayed up all night talking since they had both taken a liking for each other.