Chapter 205: Relativity Of Ranks [GOLDEN TICKET BONUS]

"It’s SS Rank," she replied after checking it again.

"Can you show it to me?" Alex asked.

Sophia handed the staff to him, and Alex immediately checked its Status Screen. Everything about the weapon was exactly as he remembered, except for one important detail that made his eyes narrow.

Its rank was no longer SS Rank.

It was now A Rank.

’Relativity of Rank,’ he thought.

Alex finally understood what had happened.

"Thank you," he said as he handed the staff back to Sophia, before taking out his phone and opening Dwitter to search for information about Relativity of Rank.

He hadn’t checked the topic earlier because there had been too many things happening, but now that the internet connection was stable, he decided to look into it. Relativity of Rank was currently one of the most discussed topics online, so Alex didn’t have to search for long before finding an explanation.

The information was exactly what he had expected. The ranks an Ascendant could see on an item, skill, or technique were relative to their own Ascendant Rank.

For example, a skill that appeared as SSS Rank to an Initiate Rank Ascendant could appear as S Rank after that same person became an Adept. The skill itself hadn’t become weaker; its displayed rank had simply been adjusted because the Ascendant viewing it had become stronger.

This meant that the ranks of skills, techniques, items, and similar things were all relative to the rank of the Ascendant observing them. The only thing Alex found that seemed to have an absolute rank was Species Rank, because no matter how high an Ascendant’s rank became, their Species Rank wouldn’t change unless their species itself evolved.

’So if I had checked the Wild Orc Leader’s wand while I was still Initiate Rank, it might have appeared as an S or even SS Rank item,’ he thought.

That explained the difference between what Alex remembered and what he was seeing now. This phenomenon was called Relativity of Rank because a person’s own rank determined how valuable or powerful something appeared to them.

Of course, the change in displayed rank didn’t actually alter the item or ability itself. Its effects remained the same regardless of whether the System showed it as B Rank, A Rank, or SS Rank.

Alex now understood why so many Ascendants online complained about their techniques or skills falling in rank after they advanced. Once their Ascendant Rank increased, the System recalculated the ranks of their abilities according to their new rank.

’Does this mean my spells might have fallen in rank too?’ he thought. Alex immediately checked his spells, expecting all of them to have dropped by one rank at minimum after he became an Adept.

However, he soon discovered that all of his spells involving Will were still displayed at the same rank. That accounted for almost half of his spells.

’I guess I’m one of the few Ascendants whose abilities didn’t fall in rank very much,’ he thought.

A faint smile appeared on Alex’s face. This was another indication that Will was a concept that had been too advanced for an Initiate Rank Ascendant. Yet he had learned it while being an Initiate.

Another thought suddenly came to him.

’What about Talents and Physiques?’

Alex’s eyes flickered as he considered the possibility. If the same principle applied to Talents and Physiques, then someone could awaken with an SSS Rank Talent only to discover that the same Talent was considered SS or S Rank after increasing their Ascendant Rank.

Alex immediately checked his own Talent and Physique. Both were still SSS Rank, which made him chuckle quietly. Clearly, his Talent and Physique were far from normal. He wondered if they would remain SSS Rank no matter how powerful he became, or fall in rank after his Ascendant Rank increased again.

For now, there was no point in worrying about it. Alex put away his phone and entered the room, where he arranged several chairs together so he could lie down comfortably while his consciousness traveled to the Land of Origin.

"I’ll return as quickly as possible, but if I don’t come back immediately, don’t worry," Alex said to his sister.

"Take care," Sophia said, and there was clear concern in her eyes. Only then did Alex realize why she had been following him earlier, because she hadn’t actually been tired and had simply been worried about him.

"Stay safe," Ava said. She looked reluctant to send him away, but didn’t stop him.

Alex nodded toward both of them before lying down and closing his eyes. He removed almost everything from his Inventory and only kept his F Rank Fire Wand because bringing more powerful items into the Land of Origin would consume additional Origin Energy.

As for the B Rank Fire Wand, Alex decided not to bring it. He had no idea how much Origin Energy a B Rank item would consume, and there was a possibility that transporting it would use most of the Origin Energy he had accumulated.

There was little reason to take that risk when Alex had already memorized the rune inside the wand. Once he arrived in the Land of Origin, he could recreate the rune using mana and use his F Rank Fire Wand as the source of the fire essence.

He was already looking forward to experimenting with it, but before that, he needed to make sure there wouldn’t be any problems with his first body after sending his consciousness away.

Alex lay down on the chairs he had arranged earlier. While walking toward the room, he had deliberately taken hold of a large amount of his mana and expelled it from his Mana Heart, because he didn’t want his mana to continue accumulating after his consciousness left his body.

Normally, he used his mana to reinforce his Mana Heart, and used all sorts of spells to make sure his heart could contain his ginormous pool mana.

..

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