Chapter 325: The Point of Ascension

The next changes that Kalli noticed were subtle ones, not as obvious as a wandering Goblin tribe.

First, when she was checking to see if the number of new system users was progressing as planned, she noticed that the population of the city was slowly, but steadily, increasing. Not as she watched, but the number was clearly higher than it had been a few weeks earlier.

They hadn’t taken in enough goats and pigs for it to count, and the chicken eggs hadn’t altered the count before, so that was unlikely to be it.

Which meant that at some point during a pregnancy, the System was counting the additional humans in advance. Well, that or they had an infestation of something that the System counted as part of their population.

Perhaps the chickens had evolved enough to count?

While she wouldn’t rule that out, a couple thousand pregnancies in the last month seemed like the logical option.

But the real change was in the strongest of their heroes.

Their power levels were growing at such a rapid pace that nobody could explain it. Their levels hadn’t changed, they were all still grinding to try to make it to level twenty. But it felt like the power scaling with every level had been adjusted, and the higher the level, the further ahead they were getting.

Nobody could truly explain it, but they were all attributing it to the world changing.

That was the only thing that made sense.

Sitting across from Kalli in the dining hall with a cup of black coffee in his hand, Sanchez had a few thoughts about the situation.

"You know, we were told that the heroes were "Awakened Humans", so what if the "Ascended" world is actually just the next stage? Like, what if those who are ready for it are a step more powerful, like the heroes are versus those who have not Awakened.?

It might not be some huge and grand thing, but like the lifting of a power cap on the world.

When the change started, my power started to grow during the middle of a workout, to the point that I had to reset all the programming just to keep up my routine. It wasn’t small, and it only continued to grow for most of the day, then it slowed to a more normal pace.

If I’m right, then we’re likely going to start seeing more powerful monsters at that level.

The ones that should have been there before, but were limited.

Now, the question is more about what level the break point is. I haven’t seen anyone under level fifteen advance. I think it’s all level sixteen to eighteen, plus myself and the others at level nineteen.

What about you? What level are you at and have you felt the change?"

Kalli shook her head. "No, I’m at level fifteen now, but I haven’t felt any sort of change. So, if level fifteen is included, then they might simply be progressing more slowly than the stronger members."

Beside her, Yara gave the soldier’s coffee a mildly disgusted look, while sipping on an iced latte, made with oat milk, because they were still short on the real thing.

Strangely to Kalli, nobody seemed to be in a hurry to get milk, but she had slowly come to realize that over half the residents of Marimgar, especially the Kalkans, were lactose intolerant. That was a true shame, the cheeseburger might never make a proper comeback in this world.

"Hey, do you think that you’ll get new store stuff once you reach level sixteen and start ascending?

That would be great," Yara suggested as she sipped her cold coffee.

Kalli shrugged. "I don’t know. It’s possible that the store will get more options once I advance. But I’m also waiting for the next level reward. I got one at five and ten, but not at fifteen. So, I’m thinking that level twenty I’ll get an option to discount prices in a category or unlock more items for the store again.

There are more skills available, but my tree is weird. Picking one locks the others at that tier. So, I can’t just save points and unlock them all.

If I could, that would be amazing.

Or, I might just need to ascend first? It shows them as locked, but doesn’t explain why. I can only assume that it’s because I picked a different option. However, that doesn’t match with anyone else’s skill trees.

I know that the Coordinator Class is different, but it feels like I should be able to do more eventually."

Sanchez chuckled. "Or, you’re destined to become that shopkeeper that tells new adventurers about the times before the change in the world as they buy the supplies they need to head out of town."

Yara giggled. "Yeah, that’s nice Grandma Kalli. Now, can we get the utility speeder, ten cases of emergency rations, a Pulse Cannon and five sets of light composite armour? Just put it on dad’s tab."

Her mimicry of the ultra snobby "young master" attitude made the others having breakfast laugh.

They had heard that same tone so many times from others at the Marimgar Academy that half of them didn’t even realize they used to speak like that until someone was mocking them.

However, it really was spot on.

And they all expected that it would be a problem again in a couple of decades, as the children of the most powerful, and therefore most wealthy, among them reached the age where they were headed out on their own again.

The next generation never fully appreciated what their parents had worked for. That was part of the lessons that Marimgar Academy had taught, to prevent them from causing issues that would damage their families’ legacies.

Sometimes, it even worked.

Most of the time, it was the business management classes that kept them on the right path, even though they didn’t solve the super entitled attitude. The people they were dealing with almost all knew them from school anyhow, since there were plenty of alumni functions.

So, the attitude was less of a problem than poor business skills would have been.

The ones who were truly good with people were chosen to go into politics instead.