"Welcome, children, to Aeternum and I know you probably haven’t heard anyone say it yet, not with the way things work around here, but, congratulations on getting this far." The old priestly instructor smiled kindly as he addressed us..

As for me and my new "friend" we’d postponed our "important" discussion for later..

"Now, most of you are probably getting jittery for the trainings and the getting stronger part, but strength without knowledge is a flaw."

"My name is Voren Lancaster, but you kids can just call me Instructor Voren or sir Voren, I’ll be the one to ensure you don’t remain ignorant of the vital information you’ll be needing to survive and grow, after all, we can’t our elites looking ignorant and clueless when outside right?"

The man laughed softly...

"First thing’s first, I need you to understand that your status as elites isn’t safe, it never is, not just your current peers but even older outer court students that have never had the chance to know what it felt like to be elite class students, will be coming for your title, so it’ll be best if you prepare your mind for any and everything."

Damn, this place doesn’t mess around, you could literally get jumped by anybody just because you’re an elite and you can’t do fuck shit but fight and hope you win..

"Alright then, let’s not waste anymore time, I know all of you have already been informed by your elders about some of the things I’ll be teaching today, but for the sake of generality, I’ll still be going over them" as the man spoke, a projection screen materialized behind him, on it, the words "Bloodline and Talent ranks explained"..

This must be what aunt v had told me about a few days ago..

"Now, as you all know, bloodlines and talents are ranked from E-SSS, being classified as the mortal ranks, then from there, we get to the true heavy hitters.

Imperial.

Saint.

Exalted.

Supreme.

Mythic.

These are the ranks of bloodlines and talents known to exist above the mortal stages.

Now, many have theorized about there being an even more powerful rank above this, since there have been abilities granted by bloodlines and talents that have broken "limits" of what even a mythic blood should be capable, but due to the fact we ourselves have yet to truly understand the "limits" of mythical abilities, they were attributed to being as such, since even within the same ranks, bloodlines and talents could still be vastly superior to others."

The whole class nodded along, the fact that they were all still paying rapt attention despite already having prior knowledge just showed how much far apart their demeanors were from the normal rabble...

"Now, you’ve always been told about the importance of bloodline and talent ranks, why people with low ranked bloodlines and talents get treated harshly, some of you already having insights on why that is, but I shall explain it all soon."

"Hmm! Now this might be interesting." Seems there was more to why there was discrimination against lower ranked talents and bloodlines and it wasn’t just because they brought about cooler abilities..

"But before that, let’s look at the various stages of power you’re about to go through."

"For the most part, you probably believe the SSS rank to be quiet the high tier of power and it is, but it isn’t the highest, not even close."

"Those of you that come from ancient families should already have an inkling of this, but I’ll explain further..

From the power tiers E-A they’re referred to as the Mortal Stages of power, yes, quite similar to the bloodline and talent ranks.. 𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

At this stage, your fighting prowess are heavily reliant on your stats, especially your mana capacity, which determines how long you can hold out using your abilities."

"Some of you were blessed with an incredible amount, in fact I am sure most if not all of you here have capacity thresholds beyond the millionth mark, as for those of you with overwhelming physical prowess" here, his attention turned towards me as he continued, "it is more often than not that you do not find much of a competition within the mortal stages, since contrary to belief, many awaken as mages and energy users than they do as warriors, so your advantages are obvious."

I didn’t bother reacting to his words, merely stared back..

"Moving on, after the mortal stages, we have the transformation stage, this is your S-SSS ranks, where the S-rank is know as the first transformation and SSS-rank, the final transformation..

What this stage means is simple, you’ve finally arrived at your turning point, where you body begins to transform, shedding your mortal shell and making room for something.. Grander.."

The whole room immediately sat up, nothing excited young hot bloods than hearing that they could get even more scary and that in such a cool way too..

Can’t lie, this man knew how to hold our attention..

"If a normal person within the ranks E-A is supposed to live five hundred years, a first stage transformation expert or S-rank expert could live easily ten times longer, that’s five thousand years and the numbers only get more ridiculous from there, this is merely a little glimpse at the overwhelming difference between a mortal stage expert and a transformation stage expert.."

"It has been said, that even someone at the peak of the A-rank cannot contend with someone that had just broken through to the S-rank and while it is generally only true when comparing regular warriors, it puts into perspective the vast difference between the two stages of power"..

"Now, at the transformation stage, the levels and numbers, the experience points and all that stop mattering, as your only way of increasing your strength, is increasing your level of synchronization with your talents and bloodlines, there’s a reason many are stuck at the S-SSS ranks and it’s because, at this stage, those that are truly talented, begin to shine"

"After all, anyone can fight and kill monsters, gain experience and level up, hell you can even have others carry you, but once all of that comfort is stripped away, all you’re left with is you, your natural talent and how good you understand the abilities bestowed on you."

"This is where true genius shines and this is also where the ranks of your bloodlines and talents begin to matter, as those with weak talents will never be able to achieve a perfect synchronization with their talents, leaving them stuck at the transformation stage forever, but those with higher ranked talents have a higher rate of success.."

"For those of you with saint rank bloodlines and talents, it is a guarantee, barring any unfortunate encounters, that you shall go beyond the transformation stage, this, children is why there’s so much discrimination against those with weaker talents, after all, if you can’t grow to match me, then I don’t need to be cordial to you and that in turn brings us to our next agenda"

"The ranks above SSS"

********

A/N: should be done with the info dump at the next Chapter, hopefully..

********

Thanks for reading...