BXBX NOVEL Chapter 402: Mage Society
"I completely forgot that I picked up that blonde haired Adventurer lady from earlier, didn\'t I?" He spoke with a sudden flash of realization.
*Sigh* He sighed a little before he checked inside his storage ring and saw the women in question peacefully sleeping in a state of stasis.
"I should probably figure out what to do with her later She does still owe me that favor, so maybe I can gain something from this encounter," he ended with furrowed brows before he looked toward a large tower in the distance.
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The Royal Capital of AquaRing.
This city is the center point of the kingdom of AquaRing and is also the most active commerce area in a radius of millions of miles!
The city itself stretches on for tens of thousands of miles and has tens of millions of various blue buildings making up the city infrastructure.
On top of the turquoise skyscrapers, tael-colored pubs, and variegated assortment of establishments, there\'s also the focal point of the vast city.
That \'focal point\' being the seemingly endlessly stretching \'Mage Tower\' that was situated at the very center of the Royal Capital!
This \'Mage Tower\' had a height that surpassed the ten thousand mile mark! Although it wasn\'t yet at the level of the Astral Spire in the Luminous Grounds, it was still ostentatious enough that people from the Azure Blank Continent came from all around to catch a glimpse of it!
However, it wasn\'t the height of the \'Mage Tower\' that everyone came for
It was instead the beings that inhabited the floors of the \'Mage Tower\'. Beings that went by the names of \'Mages\'.
These \'Mages\' were cultivators who had awakened the \'Mage\' profession and, after reaching a certain rank and proficiency with their \'profession\', were dubbed \'Mages\'.
There were ranks for mages, and there was a set hierarchy.
The specific ranks of the Mage society went like this:
Rank 1: Mage Adept {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3]}
Rank 2: Novice Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3]}
Rank 3: Intermediate Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3]}
Rank 4: Advanced Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3]}
Rank 5: Great Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5]}
Rank 6: Supreme Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5]}
Rank 7: Archmage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5]}
Rank 8: Great Archmage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5]}
Rank 9: Herald Mage {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7]}
Rank 10: Supreme Herald {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7]}
Rank 11: Magister {[Split up into Stage 1, Stage 2, Stage 3, Stage 4, Stage 5, Stage 6, Stage 7]}
The ranks of the magus society correlated almost one to one with the milestones set in the \'Basic\' Qi system.
There were a few differences in the number of \'minor realms\'; however, the premise was still there.
Say a Mage Adept fought a \'Body Refinement Realm Basic Qi Cultivator\' with no profession, then although both their realms would be in the \'Body Refinement Realm\', the Mage Adept would win 100/100 battles.
This was due to many factors, but the ones were that \'Mages\' were essentially \'Cultivators\', except they took a \'divergent path\'.
That \'divergent path\' was essentially an additional path that a \'Mage\' could take on top of being a cultivator.
And the best part about this \'divergent path\' was that it could work in motion and at the same speed as the \'Basic Qi Path\'!
This meant that one could be a Unity Form Synthesis Realm Cultivator and a \'Herald Mage\' at the same time!
On top of that, both the \'divergent path\' and the \'Basic Qi Path\' were capable of working hand in hand, all while improving the advancement speeds of both paths!
Furthermore, \'Divergent Path\' cultivators who had been blessed with the \'Mage\' profession were capable of utilizing a different kind of energy instead of Qi.
That \'energy\' being \'mana\'.
Mana was similar to Qi and acted in the same ways; essentially, it was the same thing as Qi and could be converted to Qi at a 1:1 ratio.
The only real difference between the two was that Mana was more docile in nature when compared to Qi.
But in the end, Mana was just Qi that had been \'cloned\' by \'mages\' and used in addition to the Qi that they absorbed.
Say a mage was about to enter seclusion, and they were looking to breakthrough another minor realm in the Archmage stage.
They would first prepare whatever they needed, and then they would start to sense the Qi in the air. (What they called Mana by default.)
After sensing the Qi, the Mage would use a profession-specific innate talent to \'clone\' the Qi particle into two separate particlesone Qi particle and one Mana particle.
And if all went well, then a \'Mage\' could progress in their \'Basic Qi Realm\' and their \'Mage Rank\' at the same pace!
On a side note, it\'s not possible for one to \'clone\' a Qi particle more than what was permitted by certain professions.
For if one were able to infinitely clone Qi particles, they could immediately reach the maximum realm possible!
Which was something that went against the very principles of reality, so it was obviously not going to be allowed.
Nevertheless, only the mage realms up to the Mahayana equivalent were common knowledge among the denizens of Asterion.
Anything past that was information privy only to those at the very top of the hierarchical ladder of Asterion.
However, most people believed that the \'Magister\' realm was the absolute top for the Mage Society...