magic in this world

I decided I probably should tell everyone what the magic system I'm going for here.

Before the whole magic learning arc begins, so to open, every person has a magical ability. For instance, the father has the ability [grow], and that can be anything that you consider growing. He could make a tree grow faster, slower, etc.

Our main character already has the ability [spirit speak], which would allow him to talk to the undead.

That being said there is a power level to mages in this world from Basic, Novice, Apprentice, Journeyman, Lower mage, Middle mage, High mage, Grand mage, and finally Archmage.

going from the bottom a [ basic ] could only activate his power if he was touching what he wanted to use his power on.

a novice could activate it from across a small room if he was at the center of an eight by eight-foot room he could use his power on the walls.

an apprentice still activates from the middle of an eight by eigh-foot room but could also make it last longer, for instance, a mage with the power [stop] could stop two arrows rather than one but would still be hit from a third unless he activated his power stopping two arrows then seeing the third started staggering his power activations so he could move out of the way.

and a journeyman could stop one cannonball from over thirty feet away.

the next three ranks don't really gain any strength or distance but they can now use their powers for more mundane tasks like freezing water and generally just having the ability to use their powers in more situations.

a grand mage is a mage that has probably lived for over four-hundred years perfecting the vast majority of all parts of his ability and can activate his power well over ten kilometers away.

mind you not all mages even advance past the apprentice level and if there is a city with 7 major families that have lasted for well over two thousand years possibly four of them would have a single grand mage.

and in the entire world, there are probably only three-hundred archmages and those have been the same ones for a long time they have long gone underground and no longer have interactions with the outside world.