Tiers

"Since everything is sorted I am going to go now." Old Sword said as he left. After he had left via the stairs Dave started talking.

"So where should we start. I guess the first thing we should do is see if you can control the mana in your body." Dave said as he started pacing, asking himself softly, "What would be the easiest way to test this?"

"I got it! Haru I am going to show you the basic node for Tier 0 spells. I feel it will be easier to start with spells, as skills have a much subtler effect at lower levels and would thus be difficult to see if you succeed." Dave said as he suddenly turned around and headed back into the small room. But actually, Dave would be able to tell in both cases he just wanted Eldrian to try casting a spell, as he felt it was far cooler.

"Wait sir, what is the difference between a spell and a skill?" Eldrian asked just before Dave entered the room.

"Spells are external magic, while skills are internal." Dave answered, not even turning around as he felt the explanation was apt enough. Soon he came back out with a piece of paper.

"Here take a look." He said as he handed the single page to Eldrian.

Eldrian was confused when he looked at it. The only thing on the page was a plus sign. He had no idea what it was for and felt it was a waste of paper, since the plus sign sat alone in the middle of the page, only as big as the nail of his thumb.

Luckily Dave saw his confusion, so he started to explain. "This here is the basic node for all spells at Tier 0." This caused Eldrian to grow even more confused since he had no idea how this game classified spell.

Seeing that his explanation hadn't helped Dave asked, "What do you know about magic?"

"Well, nothing," Eldrian replied, showing a helpless expression as he hoped Dave would clear up a few things for him.

"Oh. Wow, why has no one explained to you this yet?" Dave questioned.

"Probably since it has only been a few days sir. And I have been practicing basic fighting techniques the entire time." Eldrian responded, shrugging his shoulders as he did. He felt that it was only natural that he didn't know more about it. The company had only given the players basic information, which would help them find their way, but not give them the path to follow.

Hearing the reply Dave felt like he had jumped the gun. He was now quite embarrassed as he thought to himself, 'Of course he hadn't been taught any of that. The Chosen haven't been here long enough to learn this stuff yet. Most of them probably don't even know the class system or how we measure growth.' Dave thus decided to give Eldrian a basic crash course.

"Do you know how we categorize peoples' and monsters' abilities?" To this question, Eldrian shook his head, as the only thing he knew was that they had levels, and probably tiers since he was currently Tier 0. He also knew there were weapon proficiency ranks, but he had no idea how it fitted into the picture.

"Okay," Dave said, trying to calm himself. He was really upset with the lack of basic knowledge Eldrian was displaying. He felt like he was talking to an uneducated child.

"Where should I start then?" Dave asked himself as he started pacing again. Eldrian had heard him, but he was unsure of this too, so he decided to wait for Dave to decide.

"Let's start with the main indicator of someone's strength and also normally their position. This is their Tier. Do you know of Tiers?" Dave asked after having gone for a good five rotations of pacing.

"Not really. I know I am currently Tier 0. I have no idea how improving it works or what it means." Eldrian answered truthfully, as he had no idea how it worked. No player had any idea yet.

"Then let me explain it like this. Everyone has a profession and all professions which need magic can have a Tier. The basis for this would be your combat classes; being classed into three classes, the melee class, the range class, and the magic class. The magic class is also known as the wizard class, or the witch or the warlock, or the mage class. In the end, it is related to the use of spells, while range and melee would use skills instead and sometimes spells, but these uses would be limited to specific cases and in degree of use."

"Other than these there are also non-combat classes we call professions, such as blacksmiths, alchemists, inscribers, array creators, rune smiths, and many more. Each of these can be a class. Normally a class starts at Tier 0, which is where you have yet to learn the class. From Tier 0 it can go up to Tier 10. Reaching Tier 10 is nearly impossible, though. The only cases of this was during the dark ages when Heroes were as common as commanders are now."

Seeing that this statement caused Eldrian more confusion Dave sighed, before explaining the meaning, "You see, a commander is someone who had reached Tier 7 in a combat class."

To which Eldrian nodded, he felt it was a good way of connecting Tier to standing. Since this was a world at war with violent forces. At this point, Dave also took a small break to gather his breath and sort his thoughts.

"Normally a person with a higher Tier will always be higher level, so you can say that your level is secondary to your Tier. In fact, it is common for a higher Tier person to defeat someone even twice his level. This becomes more evident later on" Dave said

Hearing this Eldrian felt it made sense, as he thought about his fight against Vivian who was level 13, yet he could keep up with, to a degree. Then there was Old Sword who he couldn't even scratch.

"The higher the Tier the greater the distance between them. The divide becomes greater at Tier 5 and after. The same is for the difficulty in casting spells or skills. At this level the node you have in your hand there," Dave said as he pointed to the page, "becomes far more complex. This is the reason for the big difference in strength. Before Tier 5 the difficulty increase is more linear, and after it grows exponentially."

"Other than this everyone has a specialty. This is what you had trained on with Old Sword. You see every major branch of a weapon is seen as a speciality. Like Old Sword is a specialist in swords, but more specifically he specializes in two-handed swords." Dave said trying to make the information easy to grasp.

"But this does not have a large impact until you are far stronger. So I won't go into more detail, since at the lower levels it is still easy to switch between all the branches when your preference change." Dave said as he took the page from Eldrian.

"If you ever want to reach your next Tier then you have to master the corresponding Tier node. This node I showed you will thus not allow you to reach Tier 1, but it will help you learn how magic works." Dave said as he pointed to the simple cross.

"After which you will have to learn and master the Tier 1 node, which will hopefully be easier than mastering this one," Dave said as he waved the page.

"So then, how do you use the node to cast a spell?" Eldrian asked as he was much more curious about this at the moment than on how everything linked together. This didn't mean he hadn't been paying attention, but rather he really wanted to cast a spell.

"I am getting to it, please pay attention, as everything is important." Dave retorted this retort was strict, but not in an angry manner. This was because Dave knew well the eagerness of wanting to cast a spell.

"For the first few Tiers, the nodes are almost the same. For example, if you rotate the page so that the node forms across it will represent the form of a skill node." Dave said as he rotated the page, he then suddenly added, "But the mana flow isn't the same, which I guess you can't see in any case since your mana is static." As Dave said this he sighed.

'Normally the paper would show people the flow, since it would naturally draw their mana. But I guess the rumors of High Elves having complete control over theirs is true. Or at least it is static.' Dave thought as he also realized a problem and frowned, 'I hope the other method would still work then.'

"I will explain the flow to you briefly as we still need to ascertain if you can move your mana. For a spell the flow must be from the centre of the node, where the lines cross, outward. While for skills the flow must be from the outside, into the center node."

"This is why I want to test something. From what I heard, High Elves have to learn how to wield mana, right from the beginning. Which I believe means you can't use the shortcut of using words of power."

Hearing this Eldrian grew curious so he decided to ask. "What do you mean we can't use the shortcut?"

"Ah, let's see. If I were to give a normal person a spell model, the node and word of power. Then all they have to do is create an image of the spell model, with the nodes at the connection of two or more lines, and say the word of power for the spell. Then their mana would respond and flow correctly and cast the spell."

"Naturally not everyone will succeed, but their mana will be stirred at the very least."

"But I believe that in your case, this automatic response won't happen. Or at least this is how I understand the descriptions of how High Elves start out in regard to magic."

"So I will give you a spell model of a simple Tier 0 fire spell, and explain to you how to cast it. Then from that, we can see if my speculation is correct or not." Dave said as he went back inside the small room.