Grub looked at the two of them and couldn't quite understand why they were staring at him like he had just grown a second head.
Luthiel's jaw hung slack. Thi's crimson eyes were wide enough that Grub could practically see the thoughts and voices racing through her head. Morrigan, on the other hand, hadn't moved at all. The old kappa stood frozen mid-lean on her staff, the water in her basin completely still.
Luthiel spoke up first. "W-wait."
"Bug. You're not just being a dumbass, right?"
Grub frowned. "What kind of question is that?"
"The kind that needs answering!"
Thi took two quick steps forward.
"Your Forte is actually Almighty ranked?"
Grub nodded slowly. "I think so."
He could tell from the name alone that it was significant, but the sheer level of shock on their faces felt disproportionate. It was just a rank. A word on a screen. Sure, the word sounded impressive. Almighty wasn't exactly subtle, after all. But they were acting like he'd just announced he was secretly a god.
For several seconds nobody spoke. Then Morrigan's expression cracked.
The shock dissolved and a wide, delighted, almost manic, grin spread across her beaked face. She threw her head back and laughed so hard the water in her basin nearly sloshed over the rim.
"Ahh! Oh oh oh!" She slapped her knee. "I am SO glad I chose not to execute ya! Who would've guessed a shrimpy cutie like you would be carrying around an Almighty ranked Forte!"
She cackled, her whole body shaking.
"AHAHAHA! I can't fucking believe it! My intuition strikes true once again!"
She wiped a tear from the corner of her eye and smiled at Grub with genuine warmth. Grub waited for the laughter to die down before speaking.
"Okay, so I guess it's pretty good. But what does it actually mean? What does any of the information I saw mean?"
Morrigan's laughter settled into a chuckle. She looked at him and nodded.
"Ah, I suppose this is a perfect opportunity to begin the lesson."
She walked over to a fallen trunk at the edge of the clearing and sat down on it, crossing one leg over the other. The wood creaked beneath her weight. Luthiel sat on a patch of moss in front of her, and Grub followed suit, pulling out his enchanted notebook.
"Before I train you two until you're bleeding from places you didn't know could bleed," Morrigan began, "I oughta teach this greenhorn the basics, eh?"
She pointed at Grub. "You better listen up, cutie. This is important shit."
Then she turned to Luthiel.
"And you. You've already heard all this. Go over there and give me push-ups until we're done here." She glanced around the clearing and pointed at a sizeable stone half-buried in the ground. "In fact, put that on your back while you're at it."
Luthiel's crimson eyes widened.
"What?!"
"Did I stutter?"
Luthiel grumbled something foul under her breath as she stood, walked over to the stone, pried it from the earth, heaved it onto her back, and dropped into push-up position. Grub watched her and thought to himself that she was lucky Thi was the one in control. If Lu had been in charge, the complaints would never end.
He turned back to face Morrigan as she began.
"Well, in this world there is a thing called Rank and Tier. Your overall Rank measures your total development as a being." She held up eight fingers — four on each hand. "There are eight Ranks for humanoids."
She listed them, ticking each one off.
"Dormant. Cultivator. Enlightened. Divine. Sage. Great Sage. Deity. And Almighty."
"Though officially speaking, no known Almighty-ranked person currently exists."
Grub wrote furiously.
"Beasts, Anomalies, and Johnnies share a separate but parallel ranking system."
Grub looked up from his notebook. "Oh, I already know this one."
Morrigan raised an eyebrow.
"You do?"
"It goes Dormant, Feral, Warped, Aberrant, Anomalous, Cataclysmic, and Eldritch," Grub recited. "Some believe there's an eighth rank for them too, but none have ever been classified that high."
Morrigan looked surprised but Grub gave a meager shrug.
"Teacher Orobas covered animals and Johnnies pretty thoroughly. He also mentioned that some kind of organization of order is the one responsible for officially ranking Beasts and Johnnies."
Morrigan nodded. "Fair enough, at least somebody listened and attended lessons."
Luthiel stopped mid-pushup. "HEY!"
Morrigan gladly ignored her rebuttal.
"Well, that's the gist of the main rankings."
She continued. "Items are ranked using the same system as humanoids, though they tend to accumulate a bunch of nicknames for the different levels. Items are a whole other beast, but the official names are the same. We can get into the specifics another time."
Grub nodded and kept writing.
"Now." Morrigan leaned forward. "Each Rank has three Tiers inside it. Tier 3, Tier 2, and Tier 1. Three being the lowest, one being the highest. The difference in strength between tiers is noticeable but not insurmountable. A Tier 3 could beat a Tier 1 of the same rank on a good day."
She raised a finger.
"The difference between Ranks, however, is a massive jump. Going from one Rank to the next is like climbing a cliff. The gap is real."
She leaned back.
"One important thing to understand though, is the fact that the rank you see inside your Ego measures your own development. Not anyone else's. You rank up according to how far you've come relative to yourself, not how strong you are compared to others."
"A Dormant isn't weak because Dormant is weak. They're Dormant because they haven't grown much yet."
She tapped her staff.
"A Sage isn't powerful because Sage automatically grants strength. They're powerful because reaching Sage means they've developed themselves to an extraordinary degree. Though of course there are some perks to reaching higher ranks. It often increases your maximum Anima capability, your output and your body. But a lot of that which is now attributed to increasing in rank is simply the person getting stronger, not a gift."
Grub frowned slightly. "So two people at the same Rank and Tier could be vastly different in actual strength?"
"Exactly." Morrigan smirked. "But there are consistencies. If a Sage were to fight a Dormant, the Sage would always win in a battle of sheer power. Always. Even if that Dormant would be far stronger than the Sage once they reached Sage rank themselves. The strength gap between Ranks is usually absolute. If someone is two ranks above you, don't expect to win a contest of raw power. You understand?"
Grub nodded. He understood the principle. Potential didn't matter in the present tense. Only development did. That part seemed simple enough.
From behind him, Luthiel huffed and puffed through her push-ups. Grub could hear the stone scraping against her back with each rep. She was on her hundredth.
Morrigan sighed and continued. "Final thing I gotta teach you before we get moving. Forte Ranks."
She held up five fingers.
"There are five. And one thing to remember — they don't really change. Well, that's not entirely true, but changing your Forte Rank is damn near impossible. It's a ranking of the ability itself, and honestly, it's quite subjective even though the Ego makes it seem objective. They're based on how powerful the ability is and what it affects."
She listed them.
"One. Common. Simple, limited abilities. A Forte that does one thing and doesn't scale much. Functional but unremarkable. Most people who have Fortes at all land here. Useful, but nothing special."
"Two. Rare. Above average. Abilities that stand out and offer real versatility or unique applications. Someone with a Rare Forte is a genuine asset in any fight or organization. Good stuff, but still far from the top tier abilities."
Three. Elite. Battle-defining abilities. The kind of Forte that makes someone a priority target on any battlefield. An Elite Forte doesn't just help you win fights, it changes how fights work around you."
"Four. Mythic. Legendary. Very few people in all of Aethrys have ever had a Mythic Forte." She tapped her own chest. "My Forte sits here. These allow you vast control of a battle and are abilities that can win fights by themselves."
"Five. Almighty." She looked directly at Grub. "Even more rare than Mythic. They should not exist on a mortal. Honestly, I think they're damn unfair. These types break the established laws and make battles straight-up lopsided sometimes." She paused. "Though the drawbacks for such power are often great."
Her eyes lingered on Grub's throat. The throat that had tried to choke him when he attempted to reveal his Maladroit. Then she groaned and waved her jug.
"But honestly? I think Forte Ranks are a bunch of bullshit."
"Sure, Fortes matter. But even an Almighty ranked brat like you could lose easily to someone with a shit ability and better fundamentals. A tiny dagger can kill a dying god, as they say." She pointed her staff at him. "Anima control and combat prowess will always beat a fancy ability. So don't get a big head just because you rolled lucky on the soul lottery."
Grub nodded slowly and closed his notebook. He understood now. More than before. He had been given a vast amount of rope, but he still needed to learn how to tie it. Otherwise, it was just rope. An Almighty Forte sitting in a Dormant Tier 3 body was a cannon with no fuse. Impressive on paper. Useless in practice.
He couldn't let the rank stop him from chasing real strength. Luthiel's voice called out from behind him, strained and breathless.
"Are…. we….. done yet?"
Morrigan glanced over at her. "How many did you do?"
"A hundred and fifty."
Morrigan sighed. "Very little."
Then a grin replaced the disappointment.
"Well, no matter. Now that the nitty-gritty is out of the way, it's time to train you both to the bone."
She pointed at a massive boulder sitting at the edge of the clearing.
"Grub. Grab that boulder."
Then she pointed at Luthiel's stone.
"Luthiel. Pick yours back up."
She smiled wide enough to show every tooth behind her beak.
"I want five hundred from both of you. Right now. That, or until I see your vomit cover this entire floor."
Grub and Luthiel eyed each other. Thi's crimson gaze met his blackish-green stare. A look that said exactly the same thing. We're going to die.
Then they grabbed their boulders, dropped to all fours, and their hell began.