"No fair, the night is over, and you spent all of that time learning the sword, and I didn't even get to do anything, and Kael looks so tired now."
Haa Haa!
Kael was heaving, his chest rising and falling in deep, heavy breaths, trying to take in as much air as he could.
"Don't worry about it, I can still do more, though I would like it if you tell me the basics of dream energy control first, while I catch my breath. Like, is there a power system to all this?"
"Wow! I'm impressed you figured that out already. There is a system actually."
"Well, it's kind of to be expected, otherwise things would be a lot less organized, in the military and all. There has to be some kind of system that grades ascenders, after all, you yourself said that there are stronger and weaker classes to ascenders."
"Yes, I did. How about you stack your weapons back, take a little break, then we can start with our little lesson." She gestured to the rack.
"Well, I will leave you two at it," Draven suddenly said, as he propped his sword up.
"Huh? I thought you would wanna see?" Elara asked him.
"Well, I did, but they need me at HQ, I'll see you later." Draven left the training room, the door closing behind him, and that left just Kael and Elara alone together.
"Okay, let's get down to business. It's his loss. Now, listen to what I'm about to say, and listen well. There's a lot to cover."
"Of course," Kael responded, still lying down on his behind.
"So this is how it goes, ascenders are generally classified according to tiers, from 1 to 6, and then your ascended class decides you position in the army.
I am a tier 2 ascended and my position in the army is corporal, so are Rhenae, Luke, and Quan. Draven is a tier 3 ascender and he is a squad captain, well our squad captain as you can see.
Actually, let me start lower.
So when a person first awakens, usually as a toddler, their body is forming a dream core and all, they are called an awakened, if not, you are just a regular, or a civilian in current military terms.
That rarely happens though, most people awaken a dream core sooner or later.
Most kids spend their early years as awakened, developing a core, getting accustomed to dream energy, and so on.
In their late teens, at around 17-20, they usually successfully complete developing a dream core, unless you are a one in a million genius and awaken earlier, like at 15 or so, or even earlier, like the masters, our tier 5 ascended, who are recorded to have formed their dream cores at ages of 12 and 13.
The young awekened ones are called recruits in the military and the academy.
You are classified as a tier 1 ascended, or a soldier once you form a dream core. This is where ninety percent of ascenders spend the rest of their lives at, unable to advance any further.
Tier 2 ascended like me make up seven percent of the ascender population. Becoming one guarantees you live a good life, well better than most people.
And you get to work directly under a captains like Draven and go out on important missions. So it's not so bad.
There has been talk of retirement benefits but The Sovereign said that we are still at war and every soldier is needed at the front lines when push comes to shove, but yeah, being a corporeal or higher has plenty of benefits.
Next up, tier 3 ascended make up two point five percent of the ascended population, that tells you how important they are, strategically."
"Draven has been a tier 3 ascended for a while so he is on the higher end even for his class," She continued...
"In the military, they are called captains. Drave is our captain; they each lead a squad of tier 2 ascenders.
Being in that class in our society guarantees you a sort of a noble status of some sort, Draven won't act like most people his rank so wouldn't know unless you meet the other ones, they are so stuck up.
Oh by the way, do you remember that guy we saw floating up in the air the other day?"
"Yeah?"
"He is one of the few tier 4 ascenders stationed here at Raventhorne."
"Oh, I wondered why you lot seemed subserviant to him that time. Now I know."
"Next-Tier 4 ascenders, also known as majors, they are put in charge of overseeing multiple squads of tier 2 ascenders or at least a dozen tier 3 ascenders.
They make up roughly zero point three percent of the ascended population, and You would need at least two of them to fight those titan abominations you described on equal grounds. The battle will be a close one, though.
Always remember this, ascended are always weaker than their beast counterparts. So a 1v1 against a beast of the same rank is literally impossible.
Then tier fives ascenders, the masters, they are our generals in the military, in abomination terms, they are on par with walking calamities.
"Calamities?"
"Let me tell you this, if you meet one now as you are, you wouldn't even be able to run, you would die without knowing how you died."
"One of them can easily wipe those titans you met in a few seconds flat. A jump in tiers is nothing to scoff at.
A tier 1 ascended will never be able to beat a tier 2 ascended, the gap only gets wider the higher up you go. Don't let your close spar the Draven get to your head, If he uses dream energy, you wouldn't last ten seconds."
Kael was genuinely surprised, "That much of a difference?"
"Yes, if you put together hundred thousand tier 1 ascended and ask them to fight a tier four ascended, they won't stand a chance. Now imagine what the sovereign can do to you? I'm sure if she wanted to, she could wipe us all out."
"That's a scary thought." Kael said.
"It is. Now before I go on to the next rank, I will show you how ascended tier system compares to beasts tier class system."
She projected out a terminal from her wrist band.
It showed a list with images of beasts names as along with the ascended tier system written beside it.
The screen said...