The last fight left him with clumps of new infesting energy he had to expel and this time, he took only a few hours instead of three days.
After purifying himself, he entered deep meditation, preparing his mind for what's to come.
'Status'
[Dragon-Phoenix-Titan:
Order-Chaos:
Space-Time: ]
'Give me a proper status window! I don't understand sh*t with this!'
[ '…' ]
[Dragon: 10/100
ƈοm Titan: 10/100
Phoenix: 10/100
Order: 10/100
Chaos: 10/100
Space: 10/100
Time: 10/100
PS:
Before you start spewing profanities, let me explain how the progression in divine ranks work.
Starting from here, you ought to gain proficiency in the path polar to yours.
For instance, a space awakener would have to learn time. A life awakener needs to learn death.
But these two paths are unequal in progress and would remain so for a while.
In simple terms, take space path.
A typical divine awakener would have to progress 100 divine units to hit the peak of rank 1.
His time path would have to hit only 1 divine unit for him to be considered a peak rank 1 in space.
The status window of a <Space Rank peak 1>
[Space: 100/100
Time: 1/1]
If you're wondering what 1/1 would translate to, it's equivalent of starting out in time path at level 1 of mortal boundary and bringing it through celestial ranks before breaking into divine rank.
Yes, you heard that right.
To reach the peak of rank 1, you not only have to raise your own path tremendously, you have to raise the polar path from zero to divine rank.
Divine rankers could try doing the former somehow but the latter, that's very very difficult for them.]
Varian's breath nearly stopped and he looked around the cave with a wary gaze, wondering if any overheard the conversation even though there's no possibility for it to happen.
After ensuring no one was spying on him, he clenched his fists and let out a muffled laugh.
'I don't need to raise the complimentary path. I already have them in divine rank!'
[That's the surprise I was talking about, it's your unfair advantage.
Most divine rankers could progress 100 units in their own path with much more ease than progress even 0.1 unit in the polar path.
To quantify, it's a thousand times harder to fill that 1 unit for them than to fill those 100 units.
That's what takes makes them so slow in progression.
Those peak rank 1s that are struck in the same rank without any hopes of reaching rank 2, they're most likely suffering from this issue.
Most rank 1 divine beings die in that rank solely for this reason.
Progressing 100 divine units itself presents huge bottlenecks and could take millions of years.
But this 1 unit is something else. Time might not be able to solve it at all.
And you, you don't even have to worry about it.
Your relative progression speed in divine ranks would be even faster compared to celestial or mortal ranks.]
'Does the gap between the two paths remain? 100 units vs 1 unit seems too big.'
[It'll be nearly closed in rank 2.
In a similar fashion to rank 1, a peak rank 2's status window looks like this:
[Space rank 2: 1000/1000
Time rank 2: 999/999]]
'I'm guessing it's not as simple as filling 1 divine unit to reach rank 3.'
[Of course not. To reach rank 3, you have to make your progress in these two paths equal but that's the easiest prerequisite.
The challenge is linking these two paths and gaining command over the avenue.
Well, think about the slivers. I am the fusion of order and chaos.
What you control is not just order or chaos but the whole avenue. You can do things that an order awakener and chaos awakener can do. And you can also do what they cannot do.
That's rank 3. Unification of paths into an Avenue.
But that's still far away from you.
It's a step that stumped every being after the Primordial Gods. The universe hasn't seen a rank 3 since their demise.]
'Wait a minute, the Primal Union Body…'
[Formed from the power of six slivers, it can accomodate the power of all avenues. It's very, very conducive for integration of paths.]
'…And I got it at what? When I was not even a celestial? And even this advantage of multiple paths!'
[Well, the system could've helped you in some other way during your ascension. But it'd be all temporary. Every advantage you gained from the slivers was done keeping the end in mind.]
Varian nodded, his mind now at ease knowing his way forward would be much easier than he assumed after watching divine rankers spend away hundreds of thousands of years for a bit of progress.
'Oh yeah, what about the middle paths? They have no polar.'
[The soul path and gravity path have no polar paths. Unlike the usual way, you'll just have to progress 100 divine units to reach peak of rank 1 in them.]
'That easy?'
[Heh! Of course not! To progress in either soul or gravity paths, you'll have to learn more about the paths in the avenue. While its' technically one path, you'd have to learn about three paths.
Not in equal depth, but if it has to be quantified, a <Peak Rank 1 Soul> awakener's status window would look like this
[Soul: 100/100
Life: 50/50
Death: 50/50]]
'Yeah, no. It's even harder.'
[Its roughly similar. And having more exposure to the paths in the avenue would ensure a smoother integration once you reach the threshold of rank 3.
Of course, not like anyone reached in these middle paths reached that threshold for the benefit to be utilized.]
Varian once again looked at his status window and his heart sped up, a smile creeping on his face despite his attempts to remain expresionless.
'What's my strength? Why can't I beat those tentacle bastards?'
[Translating the units to conventional wisdom,
0 - 15 : Low rank 1
16-50 : Mid rank 1
51-90: High rank 1
91-100: Peak rank 1
You're a low rank 1 in all seven paths. The system estimates you should be able to fight most of mid rank 1s except those above 40 mark.
And the ones that attacked you had creatures around 49 mark and even a few high rankers.
You weren't weak, they were just too strong.]
'…'
Varian was still pissed off.