Because what it brings is an increase in "priority."
The Transcendents of this world use "Energy Level" to summarize their ranks because in a clash of abilities, a Transcendent with a higher Energy Level is more likely to make a successful determination. When Energy Levels are the same, the outcome is less certain.
For instance, the Path of Authority possesses a Law Magic called "Omnipresence Incantation," which can reveal things hidden by transcendent powers within a range. This spell has a +1 advantage (reveal), meaning it can be successfully activated even if it is one Energy Level lower than the opponent's, but if two levels lower, it essentially can't detect anything.
Therefore, those low-level Inspectors and Legal Mages cannot catch Miss Assassin— their levels are too low, and no matter what they do, they cannot find where she is hiding.
Having +1 advantage (shadow) means that with the boost from the shadow domain, the assassin gains a temporary Energy Level during stealth attacks. However, if the opponent is immune to shadow abilities, then this priority enhancement is void.
According to Aiwass's judgment, Gordon should be a Level 39 Sky Cavalry. At his age, he most certainly has enough accumulation of experience. So he must be stuck at the level before advancement—that is, precisely Level 39.
He must have decided not to advance after repeated failures in advancement.
Advancing from the fourth to the fifth Energy Level, failure can already cause significant damage to the soul. There is even a possibility of death during the full moon ceremony.
Although Gordon did not bring his mount, the Miss Assassin also did not launch a sneak attack. As a weaker profession managing to fight a Sky Cavalry head-on without losing, and even outrun Gryphons, Miss Assassin must also be around Level 38 or 39.
This also aligns with the strategy of the Hawkeye Organization: The assassins they send abroad are basically all of the fourth Energy Level. Because it's at this level that assassins can more safely evade pursuit and investigation, operating in unfamiliar and dangerous areas.
If Miss Assassin could complete her advancement to Level 40, then Gordon would not be able to suppress her. Although it's only a one-level difference, it is also a difference in class.
But if those Transcendents with names starting with "Great" from the fifth Energy Level really came, Croix's Stealth would be worthless to them. They could easily detect and control Croix.
This is the suppression by Energy Level. It's precisely because of this rigid "ranking" system that Transcendents refer to it as "Energy Level," which implies the priority of extraordinary abilities.
The Path of Adaptation, meanwhile, possesses the ability to prevent sneak attacks and to sense danger; other paths also have defensive capabilities. But just by wearing this set of cloth armor that has no defensive properties at all, assassins can successfully launch sneak attacks on previously unassailable enemies, pierce defenses that were once impenetrable, and hit targets that were before untargetable.
Even with just +1, the temporary elevation of an Energy Level determination is immensely valuable!
Although with updates, the affixes that improve priority began to overflow... this is also a type of stat inflation. But in the current 1.0 version, even +1 advantageous equipment is rare.
Without the advantage enhancement, it's basically impossible for a Level 50 to fight a Fallen Celestial Marshal.
Level 50 is even nearly an impossible sixth Energy Level to reach in the current version, necessitating the gathering of nine Transcendents at Level 49 from different Paths for a chance at advancement, with a high probability of death upon failure. Because it's basically impossible to gather enough people now, Level 50 advancement is arduous... it will wait until the world is in chaos and the power of the fifth Energy Level has begun to fall short, that is when the sixth Energy Level will start being born en masse.
In the current environment, the sixth energy level is undeniably the world's strongest, unmatched by any.
The Holy Nation's Eternal Pope is now level 50, but she also forcefully advanced one temporary level due to the Authority of the Eternal Pope, and will return to level 49 once she resigns.
As for the Fallen Celestial Marshal, being a version 3.0's extremely challenging raid boss, even level 50 is just meeting the bare minimum threshold. In such large MMORPG games, for the toughest challenge-level dungeons of a version, without being max level and fully equipped, you basically can't even join a raid group, let alone participate—it's just repeated total party kills.
—This is the value of a Superior Phantom.
Just like "Upper-Level Demon" refers to demons of a higher status than Demon Scholars, the concept of "Superior Phantom" only started after the Fallen Celestial Marshal wiped out the Rose Cross Society. It refers to Phantom Demons of a higher status than this world—all Angels and Celestial Marshals are classified as Superior Phantoms.
The distinction between a Superior Phantom and a Phantom Demon is that a Superior Phantom, even when forcefully incarnated into the Material Realm with their level capped at the world's upper limit, is always regarded as being of a higher tier. And that was the main reason for the Rose Cross Society's failure, a pure case of an information gap.
Whether a being has an all-domain unconditional +1 beneficial (divine) judgment is the distinction between a Superior Phantom and a Phantom Demon.
Only Superior Phantoms can be sealed by Great Sin Scholars into Great Beasts.
Therefore, although the Defiant Flame Butterfly had a low level, its status was high—this prematurely hatched Little Butterfly was even just at level thirty at the time, but its judgments met the criteria of the fifth energy level. It was almost immune to all forms of control, weakening, curses, Armor Piercing, backstabbing, and it could even penetrate the players' resistances and shields.
At the time, players even thought this was a standard feature for raid bosses... but then there were no bosses with this trait for two consecutive major versions. It was only after defeating the Fallen Celestial Marshal that the players belatedly realized... the Defiant Flame Butterfly was actually the first Superior Phantom that they had conquered.
So, equipment with the "+1 beneficial" attribute is the most critical to collect. Although each domain only takes the highest level of enhancement, there are still many domains that can be enhanced.
This is also why Aiwass wanted to go on an archaeological expedition—such equipment is known to be valuable even to the natives, and it's typically only held by the top forces in each nation. In the Iris Flower, it would be Hawkeye, and in Avalon, the Arbitration Hall.
The strongest in Avalon should be the Grand Arbitrator Meg.
Although she's also just a fifth energy level Transcendent, she has three pieces of equipment with +1 priority, which enhance the domains of "Barrier," "Revelation," and "Resistance." If she were to wield the queen's scepter, she could also gain a priority in the "Decree" domain; with that, she would basically be a sixth energy level powerhouse.
It's precisely because of Meg's formidable deterrent power that Avalon, with its increasingly chaotic internal politics and diverse ulterior motives, has been able to maintain its stability to this day.
It was because in the summer of the next year, Meg realized that the situation in Avalon was gradually turning dire, so she decided to attempt advancement. If she had succeeded, Star Antimony wouldn't have dared to attack Avalon.
But during that advancement ceremony, Meg's attempt sadly failed, and she ultimately met with misfortune and died—
Only three months passed after that, and then came Avalon's "Cruel Autumn" incident.