Skills Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Aim (27 ->29)

Light Armor (9 ->10)

Memorization {Social} (14 ->15)

Piano (16 ->17)

Tier 2:

Mana Absorption (50 ->51)

Tier 4:

Dual Casting (13 ->15)

Affinities Leveled Up!

Tier 1:

Air (55 ->57)

Earth (55 ->57)

Fire (55 ->57)

Water (55 ->57)

Tier 2:

Ice (30 ->31)

Lightning (19 ->24)

Magma (30 ->31)

Metal (30 ->31)

Mist (19 ->24)

Mud (19 ->24)

Plasma (30 ->31)

Wood (30 ->31)

Tier 3:

Bludgeon (4 ->8)

Durability (15 ->16)

Friction (4 ->8)

Gravity (15 ->16)

Kinetic (15 ->16)

Mass (4 ->8)

Piercing (15 ->16)

Sharpness (15 ->16)

Weight (4 ->8)

Reivyn inspected his increases in Affinities, noting another peculiarity with his advancements.

I already noticed that all of my Affinities advance in lockstep, he thought. It would be hard not to notice it. Another strange thing, though, is that it seems my higher Leveled Affinities in the same Tier slow down their rate of progress to allow for the lower Leveled ones to catch up. I don't make any special accommodations for it to happen, it just happens.

He threw the thought to the side as he continued to check his progress. His Affinities had continued to increase at a decent pace, considering he was able to devote much more time and effort to them than he was when he did so much martial training, but that wasn't the real winner this time.

Class Skills:

Basic Elemental Spells (49): Bolt 2(4)MP, Flash 2(4)MP, Beam 4(8)MP (+Duration), Blast 10(20)MP - (Double MP Costs for non-Light Affinity

Lattice (69): Bonus to Mana Manipulation +21%

True Light (26): Infuse your Will into Light Elemental Spells

Lattice has Leveled up 39 times! Reivyn saw. The Skill was at Level 30 when I started using the Sparks of Light. It basically gains a Level every time I use one. There was a hidden restriction that wasn't mentioned in the description, but other than wasting a single Spark to find out, it's really not that bad. I can only use one every 24 hours.

It's been one month since I started using them, so I've been able to use 30 of them, making my Leveling speed skyrocket. They also don't hinder my regular practice, and I gained an additional 9 Levels through training. I purchased 70 of them, so I still have another 40 to go. I went ahead and purchased additional ones just in case there's a slowdown after reaching Level 75, and I don't know if it will have any effect at Level 99.

The semester had gone smoother than Reivyn had even anticipated. He had planned the Dungeon runs and Adventurer quests with additional time allotted in case it took longer to complete the quests or run the Dungeons, or anything else unexpected happened. As it was, nothing had interfered with the schedule, and he and his friends completed the self-imposed mission firmly ahead of schedule.

Reivyn simply attended classes like normal and continued his training. The study group was able to meet and practice together with uniformity for the remainder of the semester, as well.

The end of the semester is coming up really quickly, and then there will be a short break before the summer semester officially begins. Our group's Rankings mean that we'll only have to attend about two weeks' worth of classes during the summer, and the rest of the time can be spent running the Revenant Dungeon.

Speaking of, I never did hear anything about that Prince's plans for the Revenant Dungeon. Melissa wasn't pulled into any Party with him, even though she's the most qualified person to go, at least to an outsider. Either he didn't form a Party from students, or he took the ones I saw him with in the Dungeon with Ren. Considering his affiliation with the Abyssal Mana, maybe there's something up with them.

Eh, not really my problem. My parents' informants brought back a clean bill of health with his family. They seem to really just be living normally and not associated with that cult or anything.

If everything goes to plan, then we should all be selected to go to the Eldiar Academy after the summer semester. Melissa is in her third year, so she'll be able to accept a quota this time around. Larissa will have to wait another year before she can go, herself, as long as she can get to the top of the Apprentice class.

Larissa definitely had the Skill and talent to be top of the class, from what Reivyn had seen. She wasn't number 1 currently because of her School Credits. While she and Melissa had gone off to the Revenant Dungeon last summer, several other students had cleared the main-line Dungeons. The bonus for doing so was equivalent to the bonus she and Melissa got for being the first to delve the Revenant Dungeon, but there were more of them, so the overall score was more.

It was the right decision, in the long run. The other students won't reap the bonus points for being the pioneers of the Revenant Dungeon, and Larissa's total School Credits will exceed theirs. As long as she can maintain her Affinity progression and grades, she should have the 1st place Rank in the bag for next year.

The competition was pretty stiff among the other students in the Academy. There were no other standouts quite like Reivyn, but it was worth noting that Melissa and Larissa maintained their rankings without having to break their backs nearly as much as the other students competing with them. Even then, with all of the extra effort the other students put in, they still didn't quite match up with Melissa and Larissa.

They are from a branch of a noble house in Eldiar, and it shows if you know where to look, Reivyn mused. Their talents aren't even shining as much as they will once they unlock their Dual Fire-Ice Classes in Tier 3. I don't know how they'll match up against the others in Eldiar, but as long as they're not competing against the main branch of their family in the same year, they're probably going to be at the top of the Eldiar Academy, as well.

Once they reach their Tier 3 Class, that is, Reivyn amended. I don't know the structure for the Eldiar Academy, but from what I've heard, there's an additional year available for those who reach Tier 3 before they graduate and don't get moved to the Tier 3 kingdom.

Reivyn was confident Teilon and Kimberly would be able to clinch a quota for the Eldiar Knight Academy, as well. They had almost double the number of students attending the Knight Academy, and they also had twice the quota. Teilon and Kimberly were firmly in the top 20 of the Novice Knight class.

The only thing I have left to do in this Region is finish the Revenant Dungeon, Reivyn smiled. After that, I can accept the quota for the Eldiar Academy and use that as an excuse to move my family to Eldiar with me. There's no mechanism in place to advance the students in the supplementary school to Eldiar, but it would be a huge waste to let Kailey and Riley stick around in this Region when they have so much talent.

Reivyn channeled his mana with an Earth Affinity infusion as he formed a chain with his roommates. Each of his roommates specialized in a separate Tier 1 Affinity, but they only had three of the four: Air, Fire, and Water. Reivyn was able to round the Tier 1 Affinities out using his Earth Affinity. Even though his Class specialized in Light, his Earth Affinity was still higher than any of his roommate's Affinity Specialization.

They stood in a circle and channeled their affinities in a circle through each other. Reivyn channeled his Earth Affinity outward to his right, towards Tom who was channeling his Fire Affinity inward, empowered by the Earth Affinity. Tom, in turn, channeled his Fire Affinity outward to his right, towards Trick who was channeling his Air Affinity inward, empowered by the Fire. Trick channeled his Air Affinity outward towards Vane, who was channeling his Water Affinity inward, empowered by the Air. Finally, to round the exercise out, Vane was channeling his Water Affinity outward toward Reivyn, who was channeling his Earth Affinity inward, empowered by the Water.

The exercise had been proposed by Ameliyn, and Reivyn was surprised by the results. They each connected their Mana together in an unending loop, and the benefits were very clear. Reivyn wasn't getting nearly as much benefit as his roommates, as he had to restrict his Affinity to match their Levels, though he was getting more out of it than he would have practicing alone.

It was normally impossible for one to exercise their Skills and Affinity Levels in tandem, as one could only focus so much on a task while training. This method actually practiced not only Skills and Affinities simultaneously, but it practiced several Skills and all of the Tier 1 Affinities at the same time. Reivyn could feel that he was exercising Mana Absorption, Mana Manipulation, and his Tier 1 Affinities all at once.

"Why didn't you propose this exercise earlier?" Reivyn had asked his mom after she revealed it to the four friends.

"You all needed a minimum foundation of Level 20 in your main Affinity," Ameliyn explained. "Anything less than that would not only not give a proper empowerment to the corresponding Affinity, but it also wouldn't be able to absorb the empowerment from the opposite direction. I'm sure they teach this method in the second year Mana Theory course, which would explain why Reivyn didn't learn it in the Academy either because he's still in the first year course for Mana Theory with all of you."

Reivyn continued to let the Mana flow through him. Even though he was supplying Earth and absorbing Water, the Mana was connected in a full circle to all of the Affinities. The empowerment from the Affinities carried over throughout the entire circle, and that allowed them to all practice their full Tier 1 Affinities together.

Teilon and Kimberly were off to the side, practicing their martial Skills under Refix's supervision. The husband and wife pair were really in their element, one directing Mana and the other directing Martial. Reivyn once more felt that he was extremely lucky to have been born as their son. My entire family is overflowing with talent, he chuckled. Even with her education being cut short, and having to run around in lower Tier Regions for her entire adult life, my mother is still Tier 4 even with having to postpone her own Leveling with raising children.

"Have any more problems with Lance and his cronies?" Reivyn called out to Teilon as his friends took a quick break. Reivyn and the three other Casters didn't need a break from their exercise, as it wasn't physically or mentally draining. In fact, it was a bit refreshing. Teilon eyed the nonchalant circle of Casters with a bit of envy.

"Nah," Teilon replied after gulping a drink from his water skin. "He was reprimanded by the Academy, and it seems he's having a bit of trouble at home, recently, too. He's no longer the favored son, and he's got a large hole to dig himself out of. I've only run into him a couple of times outside of class, and he's quickly turned around and ran away each time."

"He's a bully when he thinks he can get away with it, but once someone can't be intimidated by his background, he doesn't even have the courage to talk to them," Kimberly snorted. "The coward. We already beat him and his friends in a fair fight, twice. I guess he's projecting his own personality onto us, as he wasn't willing to give up. We're not like him, though. It's not like we'll attack him just because he's nearby."

"If you have the strength to run your mouth, you have the strength to run your legs," Refix called over. "Get to it."

Teilon and Kimberly took another quick swig of water before picking their weapons back up and resuming their sparring. Tom, Vane, and Trick shared a wide-eyed look with each other. They weren't willing to make any teasing comments lest they be subjected to harsher training themselves. They could practically feel Ameliyn waiting for one of them to say something, so they all firmly kept their mouths shut as they channeled their Mana.

"The nature of the world is one vast, infinite plane," Master Salrah said. Being the Political Science instructor, geopolitics was in her wheelhouse. As such, she also explained a bit about the different Regions that the students were likely to interact with throughout their lives. This eventually led to the Tier 4 kingdom that they were ultimately a vassal state to, the Quron Empire.

In order to properly explain the details of the Tier 4 kingdom and their closest rivals, Master Salrah also introduced the students to the wider Realm as a whole. Reivyn had been very interested in learning about the Tier 4 kingdoms, as he viewed them as a peer group to his parents and family. Master Salrah had gone into detail about their Tier 4 kingdom, their trade partners, and their rivals.

She had also drawn a web of trade partners and rivals extending out in an ever larger map of Quron's peer kingdoms. There were crisscrossing relationships between many of the kingdoms, much more so even than the relationships between their Tier 3, 2, and 1 vassal states. Despite overlapping relationships, the web of Tier 4 Empires had expanded out until there were over 20 Tier 4 kingdoms in what Master Salrah referred to as "The Local Group."

There are about 10 million people in this kingdom, and each Tier 1 kingdom has approximately 10 to 20 million citizens depending on the geographical size of the Region, Reivyn thought. Each Tier 2 kingdom also has anywhere from 20-50 million people in them, plus the 10 to 15 Tier 1 vassals under them. Tier 3 kingdoms typically have 50-100 million citizens, with 8 to 12 Tier 2 vassals. Tier 4 kingdoms have anywhere from 100-300 million citizens and 6-10 Tier 3 vassals.

If we average that out, we get 12.5 Tier 1 kingdoms with 15 million people, 10 Tier 2 kingdoms with 25 million people, 8 Tier 3 kingdoms with 75 million people, and then 200 million people for the Tier 4 empires. That's... Reivyn did the mental arithmetic, 1 billion, 237 million people, on average, per Tier 4 empire. And Master Salrah said there are twenty Tier 4 Empires in the Local Group.

Even if the Realm isn't actually infinite, I can see why it wouldn't be a stretch to refer to it as such, anyway. The numbers involved boggled the mind.

"Keep in mind that Tier 4 regions are as high as any empire settles," Master Salrah continued. "There are cities, towns, settlements, and outposts in Tier 5 and 6 regions, respectively, but they're not a central power group for an empire. They're mostly made up of independent groups of powerful people, and any families that get started typically move out to a Tier 4 empire because it's just too dangerous to raise children in such an environment.

"The Realm has up to Tier 8 Regions, but none of the known ones near any of the Local Group empires have any kind of human settlements in them, and only the strongest Classers, or the foolish, dare even step into them. Not only are there large portions of the Realm too dangerous for human civilization, but there are also vast swathes of empty Tier 1 through 4 Regions that don't have any people living in them, either.

"There are various reasons for such, two of the main reasons being inhospitable climates, like deserts and too tall mountains, or a lack of Dungeons or other resources. There are a few such Regions around our Local Group, but the main reason our Local Group is formed as it is is that there are vast oceans surrounding it.

"The oceans follow the same rules as the land when it comes to different Tier Regions, but they also have to account for the three-dimensional environment. It's a recognized rule of thumb that deeper Regions are higher Tier, but that's not an absolute rule. It is extremely dangerous to try and traverse the oceans to another Local Group, but ancient, powerful people have done so. That's how the teleportation arrays were initially set up.

"Now, to really blow your minds," Master Salrah paused, scanning the room to build anticipation for her next statement, "there are one hundred Local Groups in our 'Local Cluster.'"

A memory from a Dream of vast emptiness filled with billions of stars forming trillions of galaxies quickly flashed through Reivyn's mind. The way the Realm is set up is strangely similar, Reivyn thought. If there are 100 Local Groups with about 24 billion people on average, and there are 100 Local Groups in the Local Cluster, that's over 2 trillion people. And, again, Master Salrah calls it the Local Cluster. Maybe the Realm really is infinite, and it's not just an apt interpretation.

There might be a record of all of the Tier 4 kingdoms in the Local Cluster. I wonder if the Vynn Empire is one of them? I don't know how many teleportations my parents took, and I don't know the range of them, either. But there are 200 Tier 4 Empires in the Local Cluster, so it might very well be...

There was one other lesson that piqued Reivyn's interest in the last month of the second semester. It wasn't the full lecture that grabbed his interest, but a portion of it.

"There are eight Tiers of Classes, and eight Tiers of Regions, but only seven Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken, the Mana Theory instructor, said. "Does anyone know why this is?"

Master Hilken paused the lesson to scan the room. Nobody raised their hand to answer the question. It was common knowledge, but the students had never really contemplated why, including Reivyn.

"Well, there are actually eight Tiers of Rarity. Does anyone know what the eighth Tier is?" He once more scanned the room.

Hmmm... If one can force a Tier 3 Class while in Tier 2, and Tier 3 can go up to Mythic without intervention from an Ascended, then what happens if a Tier 2 forces a Mythic Tier 3 Class? With that line of thought, Reivyn raised his hand. Master Hilken nodded his head to Reivyn.

"Would it be something like Pseudo-Divine?" Reivyn asked. Master Hilken clapped his hands together, loudly.

"Exactly!" He said. "Good job. Yes, Pseudo-Divine is the seventh Tier Rarity, and Divine is technically the eighth. Each Tier of Rarity has approximately equivalent Stat gains, increasing with each upgrade in Rarity. Pseudo-Divine and Divine, though, have equal Stat gains, but Divine Classes have access to Divine Skills, which use Divine Mana. Pseudo-Divine does not have access to Divine Mana. One has to have intervention from a Higher Plane to gain access to Divine Mana.

"Does anyone know why Pseudo-Divine Rarity is not common knowledge?" Reivyn looked around the class, and after noticing that nobody raised their hand, he raised his once more.

"Because it can only be obtained in Tier 2?" Reivyn asked once called upon.

"And how did you come to that conclusion?" Master Hilken asked.

"Because one can raise the Rarity of their Class by forcing a Tier 3 Class in Tier 2, and Mythic Classes are technically possible at Tier 3. Though, it's literally unheard of for someone to attain a Mythic Class that early. Those 2 incredibly difficult things in their own right need to be accomplished by one person before they reach Level 10 in Tier 2."

"That's correct," Master Hilken said with a nod. He shook his head immediately after, though, "but that's only half of the answer. Yes, one can achieve Pseudo-Divine Rarity at Tier 2, but that's actually the rarer way to get it. The other way, also extremely difficult, is to reach Tier 8. Tier 8 has a minimum requirement of a Mythic Tier 7 Class.

"One of the perks of achieving Tier 8 is the possibility of ranking up one's Tier to Pseudo-Divine. The difficulty of achieving the requirements, though, is supposedly as difficult as achieving a Mythic Tier 3 Class. I say supposedly because there are myths and legends of people reaching that rarity at Tier 8, but nobody around here knows the full truth of the matter, just that it is real.

"So, there are 8 Tiers of Classes, 8 Tiers of Regions, and 8 Tiers of Rarity," Master Hilken paced in front of the class. "Many scholars espouse the philosophy of the 'Divine 9.' You might get lessons on it in your Philosophy classes, but I wouldn't know. Us Casters ascribe to the 'Infinite 8' philosophy. The 8 Tiers of Classes, Regions, and Rarity create infinite possibilities, and the symbol for infinity is a sideways 8.

"Lastly, there are 4 Tiers of Affinities. You might be thinking, 'that breaks the convention,' but I assure you, it does not. It's commonly known that non-Mana users gain the ability to use Mana Skills when they achieve a Tier 4 Class. This is because one's Class Tier affects one's Affinity limit.

"Everyone knows that Casters have a limit to how high they can Level their affinities based on their talent in said Affinity. What isn't common knowledge, is that each Tier advancement adds 5 to the maximum Level one can achieve in their Affinities. Tier 1 and 2 Classes increase Tier 1 Affinities by 5. Tier 2 and 3 Classes increase Tier 1 and Tier 2 Affinities by 5, and so on and so forth. Tier 7 and 8 increase all Affinities by 10.

"Non-Casters have a technical Level 0 cap in their Affinities before they get their first Class, but once they reach a minimum Level cap of 20, they unlock the ability to now Level those Affinities. That also means that non-Casters will never unlock any Tier 4 Affinities without natural treasures found only in Tier 6 and higher Regions."

That's very similar to what mom said about requiring a foundation of Level 20 in the basic Affinities in order to channel the advanced group exercise, Reivyn thought.

I wonder what the rules for Tier 5 Affinities are?