Hello everyone it's been a while. No this is not the next chapter, so I apologize for that. However this thread will have a lot of important information about the story like the world mechanics and a few things that will get briefly detailed by Loki in the next chapter (in his own goofy way).

  I've now properly developed a Growth System for stats as well as different paths one can take in this world but more importantly, it provides a way to properly scale everything in an easy way for comparisons. This way whatever level/race someone is you will have a decent way to properly gage where that individually should 'at least' be at. I'm like a lot of people I have a need to make sense of things. In a world with an almost limitless # of ways to grow, it can be hard to find a balance but I feel I've at least come up with something for now which I'm pretty happy with overall.

  Since I didn't want to have these large 'Growth Charts' taking up space or have Loki talking on it too long, I decided to have it here since it basically just adds more detail to the world as is.

  So...Let's get started.

  There are 3 basic rules of thought when determining an individuals ability or potential. There can be exceptions to these rules (User training rare techniques/studying more powerful magics), but each rule helps a person to properly scale how powerful they are.

  1. Race / Inheritance / Legacy - The first and most basic rule is determined by the person's race or heritage. Inheritances are similar to someone becoming a God's Champion or passing trials to gain abilities that have been passed down from deities or the like. Legacies are no different but are left over challenging trials from dead gods/deities that will usually reap more rewards considering there can only be 1 soul inheritor.

  (*There are also distinct Power Levels that are used when comparing between different races at similar level/ability.)

  ((**The difference in power between Divine however is so vast from Lower Divine and up, it is natural that the gods have their own separations for this level as well. While the distance between certain Power Levels can be mind bogglingly huge for some comparisons, some special cases can be considered as well and won't fit along with fellow race members at the same level. Example: Brynhildr/Valkyrie and Malthiel/King Reaper are labeled at a Celestial's level of power, but they can compare to even some strong Divines and have grown to that point.))

  Half-Divine Power Level ----------------->Celestial Power Level-------------------->Divine Power Level

  --------------(At least 1/2) -------------------(At least 3/4)-----------------------------------(1/1)

  Again while not all this is 100% how it is decided all the time, this is just 1 method for determining an individuals power base after one has acquired enough power.

  (You can also see that those with Divine blood in them have higher potential at the same level. )

  2. The second way to determine a person's ability is to view the person's 'Growth Rate' when leveling.

  As you can see a good number of those in the dungeon are already on route for the Supreme path and even a small handful on route to achieve the Apex.

  **Do note that even if Vali wasn't able to Achieve the Apex route for martial arts he still has the ability to steal skills from those who do lol....

  There are also 'Rules' for people trying to gain 'Additional Threshold' stats. Basically a Level 800 Warior can't just pick up Cooking and receive all those 'Additional' stats to be allotted into the Threshold stats.

  3. Now the 3rd way for someone to judge/compare a person's base abilities is to view that individuals 'Combat Specialty'.

  There are an untold # of paths one can take in this life to gain strength. While many may believe their path is the strongest, each has their own level of difficulty in the beginning vs the end and each share in different strengths and weaknesses. Here are 3 completely different paths one can take and their comparisons to one another.

  Martial Path vs Magic Path vs Qi Cultivating Path

  Master 1 Swordsman (Martial) = Sage 1 (Magic) = Empyrean Realm 1 (Qi)

  Martial Path

  Expert --> Master -- > Martial Lord (Placeholder name)

  Magic Path

  Arch Mage --> Sage --> Enlightened One (Placeholder name)

  Qi Cultivation Path

  Unnamed Qi realm -- > Empyrean Realm --> Sovereign

  ***Important Note - It is also important to know that just like in one's Growth Path, fulfilling unique conditions can allow someone to achieve unique rewards or even step into 'bonus' stages not permitted to just anyone.

  - For example) In 'I shall Seal the Heavens' if someone had a perfect foundation or followed a particular path one could step into the 13th Qi refining stage while others just skipped it. Or if someone had 6 Perfect Dao Pillars with no cracks they would then be rewarded a 7th....Same principle thought.

  Each path has this option however the information surrounding it is extremely hard to come by, let being able to fulfill each of the hidden conditions.

  'Bonus' stages' -

  Master 9 --> 'Titled Grandmaster' (Sword mastery) : Path of the Sword Immortal

  Sage 9 --> 'Heavenly Saint' : Path of the Heavenly Body

  Empyrean Realm 9 --> 'Deva Realm' : Path of the Eternally-Severed Soul

  (*If one were to properly make it to these 'Bonus' stages they would be given the opportunity to attempt these stages to hopefully acquire major rewards. If they are unable to achieve they could be stuck at this Realm for the entirety of their lives, however if they succeeded then they will each enter into the proceeding realm yet bat the same time become something much more different.)

  Master 9--> Martial Lord

  Master 9--> Titled Grandmaster--> Martial King

  Sage 9-->Enlightened One

  Sage 9-->Heavenly Saint--> Unnamed

  Empyrean Realm 9-->Sovereign Realm 1

  Empyrean Realm 9--> Deva Realm --> Celestial Sovereign 1

  I won't go into too much else. This was all just to give you a little taste of a few things that's to come while also providing rules and conditions to bring some balance to this world I've created.

  If there aren't rules then things become kind of difficult to fathom and this will just be a basic 'road map' when comparing two fighters and possibly be able to gage their basic level of strength. Now Loki will obviously touch on some of this next chapter briefly but this is just the in depth overview.

  Some of these things are subject to change but for right now I like where it is.

  Some side notes)

  - While Sovereign 1 should = Martial Lord 1 = Enlightened One 1

  I'm still unsure if Martial Lord and Enlightened One are the same number of stages as I'm thinking it will be different but still correlate to each other. Like if Martial Lord/Enlightened One had 2 or 3 stages then they would be split up. Especially since the distance from Sov 1- Peak Sov is going to be a shit ton.

  -Also those with Divine heritages naturally will have benefits when gaining levels and will be given the opportunity to choose a 'Demigod' path at a certain point in time. As you can see by the chart the difference between a a Peak-Lowborn Demi god and Highborn demigod is the separation of an entire level and that is one reason Loki wanted Vali to spare the Annunakes and hang onto them.

  Simply stepping into an area = to Sovereign 10 or Peak-Sov for an Annunake would actually give them the power of a Celestial's level of power instead of Half-Divine because of their strong heritages from a God wolf/ something that became close to a deity.

  -Random note- All the Saints are around Sage 5 and above. None of them are Enlightened beings though which gain abilities to sense and use world energies but I'll get into that at a much later date.

  Next chapter should be out soon and the following chapter shouldn't be long behind that one. Hopefully a week. I just wanted to give you guys something to taste on while providing you some of the stuff I've been working on during my edits/rewrites/changes to the story.

  NOTE: i have not added any changes yet to the story. I will eventually change things like Stats/Titles/Skill costs and things of that sort. I won't add the 'rewrites' yet but will show the changes to properly fit this information. Small number of other story changes will occur but I'll tell you at that time.

  Until then guys thanks again and let me know what you all think. Lol I don't think I'm going to get anymore 'You made Vali too OP too early' bs anymore lol. You can properly see how Vali and Co are pretty damn OP at their levels and the dungeon dwellers are practically perfectly formed clay for training their bodies to such an extent that leads room for massive growths in the future. While at the same time see some potential races/existences that could be hiding out in the world somewhere.

  Oh and PS!......After looking at those stats one might be asking themselves 'Ok, well then how the fu$# did they kill Balor?'

  Lol not to worry, that will be touched on next chapter too and while not trying to spoil, Loki too finds it incredibly odd Vali and co were even able to kill Balor. As he essentially gave him that 'power up' so he could flee, but instead stayed and fought. So I won't spoil anything else but like you, Loki finds the whole thing suspicious since Balor was known for being a brilliant strategist.

  Let me know what ya think in the comments and as always thanks for reading and sticking it out with me.