Rankings, Gradings, And A Familiar Growl

"So- I have to have a weapon?" Vincel asked.

They were back in the Elevator and it was taking them to the top floor of the Emporium.

Zay'in had her hands behind her back and was staring out the transparent glass of the Elevator.

"I watched you fight. I think you should have one.

From what I saw, your first instinct isn't to put space between you and your opponent but rather to get in their face and punch it out."

Vincel shrugged.

"Well, I didn't have many other options."

"You had the 'Repel' spell. Used and timed well, it would have won all your battles for you." Zay'in told him.

"But I would have run out of Arcane Mana," Vincel said.

Zay'in gave him a look.

"You should just call it Mana. No one needs to know about the difference except you."

'The System calls it Arcane Mana reserves, but sure'

"Alright, I would have run out of Mana before I could defeat all the puppets," Vincel said out loud.

Zay'in paused and then she nodded.

"Okay, so you're saying, if you run out of Mana, your next course of action is to get into a Melee battle. Fight it out with your fists?" she asked.

"I guess so"

"Then you need a weapon."

"Alright."

A few seconds of silence passed and then Zay'in spoke.

"You don't think like a Mage"

"What do you mean?"

"A mage thinks only about fighting with spells. They spend so much time practicing spellcasting so that they can grow their reserves to cast more. They don't invest in attempting melee battles.

If they do, they end up sucking at it most of the time.

It makes them vulnerable. In the beginning at least."

Their Elevator arrived and they walked out of it.

Just like the other floors before, there were people here moving from store to store to stock up on what they needed to venture into Gates.

"What do you mean, vulnerable?" Vincel asked Zay'in.

Zay'in shrugged.

"Thinking only about increasing your Mana reserves is risky for a beginner Adventurer but it is necessary for a Mage.

At the start, Most people start with a limited Mana reserve but Mages spend all their time trying to make it bigger, they neglect training their bodies which means if they are in a battle, and they run out of Mana, they are useless.

When entering Gates, you will hardly see a Mage on his or her own. They always travel with a party so that they can have support when their reserves inevitably go down.

It's why Mages are delicate and useless with melee fights."

"So Mages are weak, then?" Vincel asked.

'Lea wasn't weak. She saved my ass a good number of times.'

Zay'in nodded.

"At the start, yes. But if they have time to grow their reserves, and gain a massive arsenal of spells, they become a force not to be messed with.

You DON'T want to make an A-Rank Mage Mad... Talk less of an S-Rank. It would be catastrophic."

Vincel furrowed his brows.

"I wanted to ask, what is up with the letters? D-Grade, D-rank and stuff..."

"It's all for grading and ranking. It goes from lowest to highest, E, D, C, B, A, and S.

For weapons, potions, potential, and Enchantments, we say Grade, while we say 'Rank' for Gates or people or beasts/creatures.

For example, a D-Rank Knight wielding a D-Grade sword while wearing D-Grade enchantments enters into a C-Rank Gate to fight a C-Rank monster." Zay'in explained.

"I see," Vincel said.

'The system doesn't use letters for me. I wonder how my levels and Job correlates with the ranking systems. Am I E-Rank now or D-rank?

Probably E-Rank. Even with Arcane Augmentation, I struggled against the Dog-head Bat.'

Vincel placed a contemplative finger on his lips.

"If someone were to be stronger than E-rank beasts but still weaker than a D-Rank beast, what Grade would that person be? I mean, the levels are directly after each other."

Zay'in sighed.

"The Ranking system is only a guideline. There is a lot of room for improvement within one rank. Just because two people or a person and a Beast are in the same rank does not make them equal.

That's why there are units of strength, speed, and even Mana reserves. You saw this for yourself when I imputed the puppets with strength and speed units to fight with you.

The puppet I input with 8 units in strength and speed will still qualify as E-Ranked just like those with Six strength units.

And then, there are many other factors that determine the outcome of a fight.

Personal differences, weapons expertise, strategy, preparedness, readiness to not give a crap about 'honor'... And so on."

"I understand. It's all a bit overwhelming though. There's so much to know and understand." Vincel said.

Zay'in shrugged.

"You'll learn," she said. "Or you'll die"

The fact that she said that with a smile chilled Vincel more than the words themselves.

They were walking again and approaching the weapons store when Vincel asked another question.

"So Mages don't use weapons?"

"They do. Wands or Staffs to help with spell casting and reduce the amount of mana they spend per spell. Some keep hidden daggers in case they have to defend themselves from a close attack." Zay'in said.

"Are there Mages that learn swordsmanship to combat their weakness with melee battles?" Vincel asked.

'I remember watching all those cool movies and shows and seeing the hero shooting fireballs with his left hand while swinging a sword with his right. That would be cool.'

"You mean a Mage-Knight or Mage-Warrior? It's possible.

But both aspects will suffer and the growth will be slow."

'I don't think I'll have that problem.'

A Store worker met them the moment they entered the weapon store.

"Welcome," he said. "Take a look around. Everything here is the workmanship of Master Guren, the Great Weaponsmith. You are assured of the quality.

Unless of course you want custom jobs and that can be arranged with an extra fee and a little waiting period."

Zay'in waved him off.

"What you have on shelf will do," she said and the worker nodded at her with a smile while looking her up and down.

The weapons in the store were primarily divided by types (Swords, daggers, spears, Halberds, Bows) and then secondarily divided by Grade.

"You should only try out D-Grade weapons." Zay'in cautioned Vincel as they browsed.

"What happens if I go for something higher?"

Zay'in opened her mouth to speak but the worker promptly interrupted.

"You might not be able to handle it. For weapons crafted with beast cores, like the majority here, the beast cores retain certain personality traits of the beast they came from.

The strain of trying to wield a core stronger than you can handle could lead to a complete mental breakdown."

"What if a beast core isn't used to make the weapon? Can I wield it then?"

'I don't remember seeing cores on Jilan's club or Aidan's sword.

Not sure about Kleon's dagger though. It was either bloody or she was moving too fast or it was being used to try to kill me. None of that made it easy to focus on spotting a core.'

The Store-worker shook his head. He was quite patient to explain.

"Well, if a beast core isn't used, there are two possible scenarios.

First, the weapon is made from the body part of a beast. Bone, fang, claw and It will only to wieldable by those at the same rank as the Beast. Usually because of weight.

Second, the weapon is Enchanted.

Without activating the enchantment, the weapon will be next to useless and if the weapon-grade is higher than you can handle, activating the enchantment will drain you of your reserves before you can even try lifting it.

If your reserves are completely drained, your life force goes next. And you die."

Vincel made an almost imperceptible gulp.

"Grim," he said.

The Store-worker nodded.

"Grim indeed,"

Vincel's eyes roamed. They left the sword section, barely even glanced at the spears, and fell on the daggers. One, in particular, caught his eye.

It was completely black. The curved blade was about seven inches long. There was a grey orb set at the bottom of its handle and it occasionally released black vapor. The vapor was thin but it was clear enough to see.

There was something familiar about it.

"That dagger..."

As he mumbled, Vincel stretched his hand and touched the handle of the dagger.

"You have a good eye, sir. That is a dagger made from..."

"The horn of a Grim wolf." Vince interrupted the worker to say.

"Correct, Sir, it is," the worker said with a nod. "It's D-Grade. Well within the range you want."

Zay'in was giving Vincel a look.

"What's the matter?"

Instead of answering, Vincel took the dagger off the display wall and as he gripped the handle tight, he could have sworn he heard a growl from it. A growl that sounded very similar to the one the Grim wolf he killed in the Gate made.

'It can't- It can't be from the Wolf I killed.'

Vincel infused Arcane Mana into the dagger. Hoping that would get him information from the system.

[Grim Wolf horn Dagger: D-Grade]

'Oh'

The information was simple and accurate.

It did not confirm Vincel's wild thoughts.