Chapter 241: The Secret of Rank (Combination)
“Zzzz. The surface of the scroll is attached with a curse on the magical level, very similar to the principles of magical application; I can feel the fluctuations of the world’s resonance.”
On the beach of the island, the steam-puffing mage Haldor looked at the golden box in front of him, extending his hand to determine the type of curse inside, arriving at a conclusion extremely similar to that of Fisher.
But it was evident that he was unaware that the world resonance caused by magic was related to the Spirit Realm, and without the soul sight enhancement from the Soul Supplement Handbook as Fisher had, he couldn’t see the illusory eyes that sparkled like galaxies around the golden box.
“Are you saying this thing is used by the Phoenix Race, and not a curse of fate?”
Balzak and Haldor were the main researchers of the scroll. In addition to the two of them and the bodyguard Felis, Valentina had actually also hired a logistician and a mechanic.
“Hey, Haldor, I brought your arm; hurry up and dismantle that long-feathered one.”
At this moment, speaking to Haldor was a petite girl with blue hair. She wore the signature black robe of Cardu but did not have the complex patterns and kind expressions associated with other devout believers of the Mother.
She looked a bit impatient, with a cherry-like small mouth holding a malt candy lollipop, and was crouched down, familiar with assembling a new mechanical arm using screws from a backpack that was much larger than her body.
“Zzzz. Thank you, Selti.”
The mechanic named Selti, still holding the lollipop, took over the feathered arm that Haldor had removed. She poked it here and there, unable to figure out how bird feathers could grow from this inorganic machine.
“Ha, incredible! I should collect this thing. A mechanical arm with bird feathers.”
“There’s no more room for clutter on the ship, Selti.”
At this moment, behind Valentina’s wheelchair stood a big sister with a kind smile, speaking to the mechanic.
She was broad-minded, much like the nun who had taught Fisher his studies when he was a child at the church school. It seemed she had just disembarked, wearing a white dress in the Northern Region style, with a symbol on the chest of her dress resembling the five-pointed snowflake on Valentina’s hat, which was the emblem of the Turan Family.
She was holding a platter of freshly baked butter cookies and scanning the surroundings with a gentle gaze, inquiring of everyone,
“Does anyone want dessert? Ladies, Selti, Balzak, and Haldor. Ah, sorry, I forgot you can’t eat. Huh, where’s Felis?”
Upon looking at Haldor’s body, which was entirely made of steam machinery, she shyly touched her cheek, her smile tinged with a hint of apology.
“Heh, that money-loving girl probably doesn’t understand anything; she must be off digging for treasure. There’s treasure all over the beach! I swear she nearly wants to die here.”
“Hey, that reminds me! When I was cleaning Felis’s room, I found all those coins neatly stacked in her bedding. They won’t even fit in the room on the ship!”
On the beach, Valentina’s team had two more members appear, suggesting that Valentina had decided to open the scroll and read its contents on the island.
At this point, Fisher, sitting among the bushes with the Paz telescope, stroked his chin and took in the situation from there.
Aoxi had temporarily flown back to the Iceberg Queen to bring back that large check, also to confirm how long the steam engine on the ship would take to repair; meanwhile, on the island, Paz was searching for food with the crew. Captain Alagina had been injured and needed to rest, while Fisher had come over to check on the situation.
He wanted to know the contents documented in the scroll, and if necessary, he could offer a little help to Valentina’s team, but it seemed not urgently needed just yet.
However, they still had some time to resolve the curse before opening the scroll, and since they could not leave the Iceberg Queen, Fisher felt there was still time, so he wasn’t in a hurry.
Looking out from the stretch of beach where Valentina was located, one could notice some small holes appearing in the sand at an unknown time.
Peering into one of those small pits, the lionfolk Felis was hiding, her eyes gleaming as she dug through the sand with her claws. With her swift movements, a golden bottle half-buried in the yellow sand gradually appeared before her.
Her eyes lit up, her nose twitching slightly, but she suddenly caught a whiff of a strange scent. Turning her head, she saw a fat face suddenly smiling at her. Startled, she instinctively clutched the golden bottle she had just unearthed.
“Ah! What are you doing? Dirty pirate, those treasures were found by me, don’t even think about stealing them!”
Paz was behind her with two crew members, shaking her head at her clutching the bottle, pointing at the treasure Felis had dug up, saying, “The treasures you dug up before are certainly yours, but what comes after might not be the case. I have three people here, and you’re all alone. And we have tools; you can’t dig as fast as us. Let’s give her a whole act.”
With Paz’s command, the crew members behind her took out shovels, clearly intending to ‘share the spoils’ with Felis and grab this treasure from the beach.
Felis gritted her teeth, her golden long hair flaring up a bit in anger.
Normally, she wouldn’t mind, but when it came to someone competing with her for money, she simply couldn’t tolerate it. This was undoubtedly more uncomfortable than killing someone.
The eyes on Paz’s chubby cheeks darted around when she saw Felis flaring up; she quickly raised her hands and stepped back, her tone becoming more gentle, seemingly startled by Felis’s reaction.
“Hey, hey, calm down! You lionfolk get easily anxious. Don’t be too hasty; after all, the things on the beach were found by you first, and you should have priority. Let’s dig together, and we’ll split the treasures 60-40, how about that?”
Upon hearing this, Felis’s ruffled attitude relaxed a bit, and her money-starved brain processed the thought slowly.
If she didn’t share with them, she would either have to fight with them or compete against all three of them in digging things. She might end up with less treasure, and fighting might spoil things for her boss; but if she were to split with them, she could still get a good share!
With this in mind, her ears, like muffins, shook a little, and hugging the golden cup in her arms, she nodded.
“Deal! Let’s gather the treasures tonight and split them. I’ll give you all a heads-up—don’t hoard the treasures, or don’t blame me for turning against you.”
Paz extended her chubby hand and shook it without caring about Felis’s sandy claws, grinning, “No problem, no problem.”
In reality, Paz and the crew still had to find food for the Iceberg Queen, so they definitely didn’t have time to dig for treasures with her.
Anyway, seeing this lioness seemingly at loose ends, with a head that didn’t look too clever, they could just dig a bit and hand some to her later, taking her hard-earned 40% for free.
Competing for the treasure together would be one thing, but letting her dig almost all of it while still having to split it was an art.
Watching Paz and the two crew members walk away with shovels, Felis secretly rejoiced and cautiously put the golden cup behind her, then began to dig enthusiastically for the hidden treasure beneath the sand.
Fisher observed this scene from a distance, smiling silently, clearly aware of what kind of scheme Paz was plotting.
As the saying goes, one cannot judge a book by its cover. Although Paz looked fat, she was actually quite slippery and flirty. It was evident how she had subtly lowered Old Jack’s guard earlier.
Though Old Jack was a few years older than her, that seemingly ferocious yet genuinely kind-hearted old man from Nali couldn’t outplay this first mate from the Kingdom of Sardinia.
Watching Felis fervently digging for treasure, Fisher suddenly thought—if ranking life in terms of hierarchy, where would the lionfolk stand?
Previously, he had seen the Universal Warning Tablet underwater, but unfortunately, it was swallowed by the Siren’s large mouth.
Thinking of this, he called out to Emhart, perched on his shoulder, to ask if he knew anything about life hierarchies.
“Emhart, do you know about life hierarchies?”
“Ah? What? Life hierarchies?”
Emhart, like Fisher, was focused on the scroll in the distance. He was also curious about what the scroll of the Phoenix Race contained and wanted to store that knowledge within himself—it was the instinct of a relic.
So upon hearing Fisher’s sudden question, he froze for a second, pulled his gaze from Valentina’s group, and replied, “Let me think. This concept is quite old and probably dates back to the time I was forged by the great Holy Spawn. It’s a concept introduced by you humans. I can only give you a rough overview since I wasn’t as intelligent when I was just born.”
Fisher was somewhat surprised after hearing that. He thought relics like Emhart would have a clear distinction from other relics from the moment they were forged.
“Are you saying that when you were forged by that so-called Holy Spawn, you actually didn’t have intelligence?”
“Ah, exactly… Just like every life when it is newly born, the consciousness is very vague, fulfilling the duties that the Holy Spawn naturally crafted for us. It wasn’t until I left the Holy Realm and the great Holy Spawn for some unknown reason, wandering through the long years that I began to develop the thoughts I have now. This must have a special reason.”
“Enough about that; I should talk about life hierarchies.”
As he spoke, Emhart floated in mid-air, and the pages inside of him began to flip rapidly, as if searching through the information he had once recorded.
“Well, here’s the thing: the term ‘Rank’ is actually the classification that you humans are accustomed to. You like to categorize various concepts in order to demonstrate their differences. Generally speaking, you seem to have several ranks distinguished as [Reproduction Rank], [Warning Rank], and [Relationship Rank].”
“Literally, the [Reproduction Rank] indicates the possibility of biological progeny production between beings. The higher the rank difference, the lower the possibility of reproducing offspring. Mostly the arrangement of reproduction ranks is similar to [Warning Rank], with only a small portion being special. The Warning Rank indicates the average capabilities of various races’ individuals; the higher the rank, the more exaggerated the capabilities of living beings. So broadly telling you the meaning of the Warning Rank will suffice.”
“As for [Relationship Rank], it has no current reference significance. Of course, each human tribe is different. It’s ranked according to the closeness of other races and tribes; the higher the rank, the worse the relationship.”
Emhart had already finished searching for all the knowledge he had recorded, then turned his gaze to Fisher and stated,
“Taking the average rank of humans as the base, the Warning Rank ranges from Rank 0, incrementing up to Rank 20.”
“Individuals at ranks 0 to 5 generally have no special abilities and only differ in physical strength and constitution, thus being termed [Humanoid Rank]. But even so, without external force, even if humans exhaust a lifetime of training, they would only reach about ranks 2 to 3 at most.”
“Ranks 6 to 14 already reach well beyond human ranks. Whether it’s capabilities, constitution, or reproductive probabilities, they will distinctly differ from humans, termed [Extraordinary Rank]. Races like the Dragon Race, Phoenix Race, and Whale Folk average ranks reside within this range.”
“And for races ranked 15 and above, well, they will be regarded as myths because of their supernatural nature, thus being called [Mythical Rank]. However, their numbers are very few, with almost all of them having vanished, making them impossible to encounter. Chaos Races belong to this range.”
“Moreover, I must remind you that if you see any tablets recorded by ancient humans, they usually draw the respective races next to the ranks. You must not be fooled by the races depicted there! Every individual occupies a different rank, and those negligent artists only indicate the general position of that race; moreover, every Warning Tablet among human tribes varies!”
Emhart’s tone turned a bit advising, seemingly having suffered losses on this front. Even the book cover that had a single eye and mouth looked forlorn.
“I wonder which foolish human tribe recorded little demons and familiars as demon races on their tablets. Before I entered the demon abyss to steal books, I thought it was full of humanoid little demons and extraordinary demon attendants. Yet upon entering, it was all mythical demons, and I was caught by the most powerful batch inside.”
Listening to Emhart’s introduction, Fisher’s thoughts quickly aligned with the content he had seen earlier on the Universal Warning Tablet. It seemed that the horizontal lines representing ranks on that tablet amounted to 20. Excluding the one based on humans, the abilities would progressively increase.
The ancient human classification concept was still very understandable. Since this rank was named [Warning Rank], it meant that humans relied on this rank to assess the risks posed to them by other races. This was a tool created by ancient humans to seek benefits and avoid harm, somewhat akin to mathematics; other races do not recognize it.
With this in mind, when Erwind stated that Eil was at Rank 18, didn’t it mean that Eil was a great demon of the Mythical Rank? No wonder when the Soul Supplement Handbook first issued a warning while forming a contract with Eil, it had never done so during the contracts with Raphael and Jasmine, the two world exterminators.
Moreover, upon hearing the ancient human ranking system, Fisher suddenly recalled a very familiar concept, which was the magic used by humans.
Previously mentioned, the levels of magic were distinguished by [Ring Counts], with below six rings termed [Low Ring Magic], and anything above six rings could be classified as [High Ring Magic]. However, the highest level of magic that currently exists has only fourteen rings.
If the magic ring count corresponds one-to-one with the ranks, magic perfectly reaches the threshold of Mythical Rank, entirely capable of covering all beings in the Humanoid Rank and Extraordinary Rank!
Then is it possible that this mystical tool known as magic was created to compensate for humans’ inadequacies in life ranks?
Once this bizarre thought arose, Fisher’s mind suddenly flashed with the image he had seen the day he observed the Universal Warning Tablet underwater. At the bottom of that tablet, a human was prostrating on the ground, sincerely raising their hands over their head, as if receiving some kind of reward.
This made Fisher deeply question the magic history he had studied before; he suddenly felt that the magic humans used now might not have been created by them but rather bestowed upon them by someone. As for who that was?
That day, existing in the sea, above that high stone tablet, a lofty yet overwhelmingly compassionate gaze suddenly invaded Fisher’s thoughts.
Fisher found himself lost in thought, mumbling a term under his breath, “Mother?”
“Mother? What mother? Have you lost your mind?”
“No, I’m just pondering something.”
Upon hearing Emhart’s inquiry, he shook his head, keeping the thoughts that had surfaced a moment ago deep in his heart.
Previously, upon seeing Ramastia, Fisher had harbored doubts. If the god worshiped by the Whale Folk existed, could it be possible that the Mother also existed?
Now Fisher felt that the Mother could likely exist, and it was this compassionate Mother who bestowed magic upon humanity, allowing humans to leap from the very bottom of the hierarchy and achieve their current dominance.
With this in mind, he suddenly looked at himself and asked Emhart, “By the way, according to this classification, where do you think my rank would roughly be?”
“Where do you stand?”
Emhart scanned Fisher, then circled around before saying, “Based on your physique alone, I’d say around rank seven or eight. Your ancestors likely had a subhuman of a rank even higher than the Dragon Race, and despite so many generations of bloodline diminishment, you’ve managed to retain a physique of an adult Dragon Race, which is quite outrageous.”
“But if we add in the other relics and magic you possess, it becomes difficult to say. Since humanity has begun using magic, this method of calculating ranks has been largely abandoned; specifics I am not very familiar with.”
“I’ve heard that ancient humans had a special calculation formula, but I didn’t record it, perhaps because you humans felt that period was too humiliating, or there might have been some disaster causing these things to be lost. These things are very common after thousands of years.”
But as he spoke, Emhart’s expression suddenly shifted, his tone becoming slightly ironic.
“However, I did mention that although the reproduction ranks and warning ranks mostly overlap, there are still some differences. Like you, I feel that your reproduction rank is likely much higher than your warning rank. Beings from the Extraordinary Rank could probably reproduce with you.”
This time, Fisher’s expression turned a bit strange; he had been tested by Eil on his reproduction rank, and she had indeed remarked that it was quite high, but how did this book know?
“Wait, how do you know this?”
“Heh, every morning I share a room with you. How could I not know? My suggestion is that you should quickly find a suitable lady; at this rate, I feel you’re about to go insane.”
“My suggestion is not to casually give advice to others.”
Fisher’s expression darkened. Just as he intended to reach out to grab Emhart, who was hovering nearby, he had already darted off to a considerable distance. Fisher didn’t plan to bother with him but continued to contemplate this newly acquired concept and the questions it brought.
Because he suddenly realized a flaw in Emhart’s statement. He had just said that humans placed the average rank of races on their Warning Tablets, but Fisher felt otherwise.
If it were placed based on the average, then humans’ ranks shouldn’t be at the base of “zero”. In ancient humans’ rudimentary mathematics, there was no concept of negative numbers. When ancient humans placed themselves at zero, it meant they hadn’t considered ranks below zero.
Therefore, the true meaning depicted by races’ ranks on the Warning Tablet should be “the lowest value of adult individuals of the race.”
According to this classification, his current physique should be at the vicinity of just above the lowest rank of the Dragon Race. No wonder he felt significantly weaker than Raphael, a fully developed Dragon Race.
Another question emerged. It seemed he found a pattern for the enhancements provided by the Soul Supplement Handbook.
From the research already conducted on several subhuman races, he had gained close to 30 points in physique. He clearly felt that in the beginning, the boosts from researching Renee and Raphael were the most pronounced, even leading to a sensation of being extremely energetic; however, in subsequent enhancements, the rate had begun to diminish.
Did this mean that as ranks progressed, the disparity increases? The reason might lie in ancient humans rarely interacting with high-ranking subhumans, which naturally prevented them from distinguishing the characteristics of higher ranks distinctly?
Yet the other enhancement points didn’t have such a characteristic, for example, points regarding reproduction capabilities showed no diminishing trend; he simply felt increasingly fond of ladies.
Disregarding time and costs, at present, Fisher could inscribe at most a nine-ring spell alone. Coupled with his Rank Eight physique, conservatively estimating, could he not match up against enemies in the range of Rank Ten to Eleven?
However, Fisher still felt it was not very reliable. After all, this was the ancient system that humans had once played with, and the present world had factors like magic, steam engines, relics, etc., impacting it. Not to mention, Fisher still had a considerable number of Supplement Handbooks at hand, which made judging life ranks very different, hence difficult to ascertain.
Fisher gazed at his palm, suddenly struck by a thought.
Since the former methods couldn’t be used, then why not create a new ranking system for himself, taking these factors into account?
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(The End)
