7 Current Position
During the past 2 years, from all the books he read, Lucien found out much more about the current situation on the continent.
The reason why the 3 empires were not at war and his life was peaceful, was because the mountain range that separated them. It was completely infested with beasts, not even Rank 4s, would dare to casually venture inside and cross it. It was called the Myriad Beast Mountain.
The trade of the empire happened through channels, which were described as cut off part of the mountain. Lucien imagined a straight route, on both sides endlessly high smooth mountain walls, like someone used a knife to carve it out. No beast, even ones comparable to Rank 4, dared to venture on those channels.
They were spread out, connecting all empires to each other. This led to a almost unbreakable balance, since the routes were not big enough for an army to pass.
Rank 5s were not mentioned in any book.
'By using some examples set in the book, I can be 90% sure that the emperor is Rank 4, not sure about his path through.'
'And I'm almost certain each empire has an Rank 5 old fogey, hiding in a tomb with one leg in his grave, but handing on to life with his all.'
Lucien also found out something really surprising, it made him very excited.
Apparently commoners in this world, lived even longer than commoners in his previous world.
Aging started at 80, it was common to see a person that managed to live to a 100.
Since it was peaceful times, other than an occasional beast that left the Myriad Beast Mountain killing some farmers, and a riot here and there, commoners had an enjoyable life, taxes were not that high as well. Of course everything would change if war was on the horizon.
For Rank 0, lifespan already increased a little bit. If death doesn't happen 120 is not a problem, 130 for some paths that specialize in vitality. The difference was that Rank 0, sometimes had harder time surviving than commoners, since fighting beast and humans, were common occurrence.
Many commoners that were satisfied with their current social standing, even considered those practitioners - stupid. Why would you throw away your life like that when you could enjoy it, have some kids, farm your lands.
Others were not so optimistic, they could have power to protect themselves if something unexpected happened, and as they struggled against fate, they got stronger. With every breakthrough they could live longer and their position in society improved, so ambition was also birthed by that same power. They knew if a war broke out, commoners, would be the cannon fodder.
Rank 1 was even more pronounced on the increase of lifespan, it was 200-220 years depending on the path.
Rank 2 - 350-400 years.
Rank 3 - 700-800 years.
Rank 4 was a separating boundary, where you could start deriving middle level paths, so lifespan varied more, as some middle level paths gave quite the boost to it. But it was between 1500-2000 years. There were no records of someone making it over 2000.
As for Rank 5 there was nothing, it was kept as a secret. Even the manuals for the lower paths were only till Rank 3, the empires wanted to keep rouge practitioners at bay, and even without meeting and discussing, every empire did things the same way.
There was even a book on the military rankings, and path requirements to get promoted.
This only applied to the imperial army, as other groups were more like mercenaries and had their own ranking systems.
To be a leader of 10 commoners, Rank 0 was requirement, and nobody could assign someone there with connections, not even the emperor.
To be a leader of 10 Rank 0s, Rank 1 was requirement. Of course commands issued to their underlying teams were with priority over the Rank 0 squad captain.
And the same went on with 10 Rank 1s being under a Rank 2 Thousand Men commander. And 10 Rank 2s being under a Rank 3 Ten Thousand Men commander.
In the military of every empire there were 10 Rank 3s, under a Rank 4 General. And that was everything that was displayed, exactly the same power level.
'Everything else is hidden, but I'm surprised to what lengths these people went, to keep everything in such a balance, I wonder if I assassinate a prince and leave a flag of the other country on his body, what would happen.'
'The emperor position seems really solid, so I don't have to worry about being killed in a rebellion, at least for now.'
'But that cute almost teenage brother of mine, sure is gathering up power. Nobody found any trouble with me yet, but apparently he is almost peak Rank 0 in the Water Path. Everybody is supporting him, because of talent... is what he probably thinks. Who would care about a 12 year old in the imperial court. Everybody is using him to get on the good side of his father.'
'The moment they see the talents I show, they will judge if it's worth offending me or it's better to keep on my good side.'
'For now I should as mother to find me an instructor, I'll ask her for a spear instructor, as my Strength is much higher than Agility, It feels like sword would require more speed than strength.'
'It's gonna be really hard to control the 5.00 Strength and only show 0.50.'
'I guess it would help me learn to control my body faster that way.'
'I should ask her, if I have the right to request some beast meat.'
When Lucien unlocked the Ghoul Path, on the conversion list updated on the meat part.
-Common meat - 1 existence point/kg-
-Rank 0 meat - 5 existence points/kg-
-Rank 1 meat - 25 existence points/kg-
-Rank 2 meat - 50 existence points/kg-
-Rank 3 meat - 100 existence points/kg-
-Rank 4 meat - 150 existence points/kg-
-Rank 5 meat - 200 existence points/kg-
