Ats o visit the Awakener Associatioer. It was the pce that provided general information for awakeners, includiails on Dungeons, Marketpce listings, Aus, and avaible merary awakeners. vely, it was also he Guild ter, it was a tral hub fanized Awakener Guilds.

  He had pns to hold one-on-one versations with each of his subordinates and decided to start with Karian. So he invited Karian to follow him.

  Just as he and Karian were about to head out, someone called his s turo see Lyrassa approag, her usual warm smile lighting up her face.

  “My Lord… may I join you both?” Lyrassa asked politely.

  “Yes… of course. e along,” he replied, then raised an eyebrow. “But you walk faster, ’t you?”

  “Uh…” Lyrassa nodded quickly. “Yes, My Lord. I .”

  Ats stepped out, with Karian walking at his left side. Lyrassa joined on his right, and, surprisingly, she kept up with an impressive speed he hadn’t expected.

  Somethi off, though. Ats paused, prompting Karian and Lyrassa to stop as well. Lyrassa looked at him, a bit puzzled.

  He gnced down and realized she wasn’t walking at all, she was h a few inches above the ground, which made her appear slightly taller.

  “ you mahat speed while actually walking?”

  She smiled, nodding. “Yes, My Lord, I .”

  They tinued on their way, with Ats adjusting his paore rexed speed.

  “Tell me, Lyrassa, would you mind if I asked about your past… I mean, before you were summoned by me?”

  “No, I don’t mind,” she replied in her gentle voice.

  “I want to get to know you both better,” Ats tinued. “I know you've faced simir challeo what I’m up against now. This is all o me, and I believe there’s a lot I learn from your experiences.”

  Lyrassa houghtfully. “I once had a floating isnd, much like ours... and I protected it for... 500 years.”

  Ats was taken aback, casting her a surprised gnce as they stepped into the elevator. Five hundred years?

  “I was a Rank 7 - Champion, before tragedy befell my isnd, my Lord.”

  “Champion?!”

  Ats recalled Edrik’s specution that Manna might have been at least an Overlord, Rank 8, in her previous world. If the System cssified Manna as an Exclusive Rank-S Character and Lyrassa as a Standard Rank-S, then Edrik’s theory held weight.

  "Proteg a floating isnd and surviving tless battles for 500 years." Ats repeated, still trying to his mind around everything this Nature Spirit had endured.

  “The people I was meant to protect… they perished…” Lyrassa’s voice grew softer.

  “Did you lose to another Lord, Lyrassa?”

  Lyrassa shook her head. “I won my battles by defending my isnd. I grew my isnd from the rewards the system granted me,” she expined. “But one day, an Are-grade Beast attacked my isnd.”

  “Are-grade?!” Karian interjected.

  Lyrassa nodded slowly.

  “Wait, an Are-grade beast?” Ats echoed in surprise. “So far, we’ve only entered up to Legendary-grade beasts here: on, Rare, Elite, Epiique, and Legendary.” He paused, putting the pieces together. “Legendary is the highest we’ve seen so far. There’s one grade above that, Mythic. But it’s just a rank on paper; no one’s actually entered one here.”

  He added. “But Are-grade beast?”

  Karian spoke up, “Are-grade is actually above Mythic-grade, Ats.”

  Ats paused, letting that sink in. “An Are-grade Beast attacked your isnd, and that’s how you lost it?”

  “Yes, My Lord,” Lyrassa replied.

  Ats tried to imagine just how powerful an Are-grade Beast would have to be.

  Karian added, “The highest-ranked beast I ever faced was Mythic-grade. Even then, nearly half my army was wiped out.”

  “Did you win in the end?”

  “With all the sacrifices… it was both a victory and a loss.”

  Ats houghtfully. “And what rank were you before being summoned here?”

  “I was a Rank 6 - Marshal. Just one rank below Lyrassa.”

  “And Edrik?”

  “Edrik held Rank 5 - Guardian,” Karian said. “And Mira was Rank 3 - Pathfinder.”

  Manna: at least Rank 8 - Overlord.

  Lyrassa: Rank 7 - Champion.

  Karian: Rank 6 - Marshal.

  Edrik: Rank 5 - Guardian.

  Mira: Rank 3 - Pathfinder.

  Ats nodded slowly, pieg together everything he’d learned. It seemed that Standard Rank-S characters likely held ranks around Champion. Rank-A characters, then, probably fell somewhere between Rank 3 and Rank 6. As for Exclusive Rank-S characters like Manna, they might be at least Overlord, or possibly even higher.

  He still didn’t fully grasp the power sg between each rank, but ohing was clear: on h, Lords only went up to Rank 6 - Marshal, which had been Karian’s rank before his summoning.

  Sht now, Karian’s experience pced him on par with the highest possible rank on h. Meanwhile, Lyrassa and Maed at levels beyond anything even attainable here.

  Ats sighed, a sense of awe settling over him as he realized just how vast this world truly was, and beyond it, who knew how many other worlds y out there.

  They had the knowledge, the experiehey’d only lost a portion of their inal strength. He could hardly imagine just how desperate their situations must have beeed, stripped of their full power, and then summoo serve another Lord, a new awakened Lord!

  Still, maybe this was also a sed ce for them.

  “If someday we could visit your inal worlds,” Ats asked, “would it be possible to meet anyone you onew there? Or even… avenge your losses?”

  Karian sidered this. “This world is still far from reag that level. But anything is possible, so… yes.”

  “The Are-grade beast that destroyed my people…” Lyrassa murmured. “It will surely bring ruin not just to my inal world, but perhaps to every world it enters.”

  Ats’s expression grew serious. “Those high-grade beasts would destroy this world too, if they arrived before the Lords were ready, wouldn’t they?”

  “That’s exactly what happeo my world, My Lord,” Lyrassa said.

  Ats houghtfully. "And have you ever known someo Overlord rank before? Just how powerful are they?"

  Karian’s expression grew serious. "Someo Overlord rank is a being who has mao cim their entire world, in every sense."

  "The whole world? The entire p?"

  "Yes," Karian firmed. "Their battles unfold between worlds, leaving great destru and massive devastation in their wake."

  "So, you're saying Manna could actually be that powerful?" Ats asked. "Is that why Edrik said she was likely on the level of a god?"

  Karian nodded. "Exactly. For someo that level, power is nearly limitless, and the cost of wielding it is just as high."

  Ats then delved deeper into the nature of the Lord Battles, eagerly abs the insights Karian and Lyrassa shared.

  Through their stories, he learhat, despite her youthful appearance, Lyrassa was actually several turies old. Karian, by trast, had been around 150 years old at the time of his final defeat. Their extended lifespans alone spoke volumes about the vast experiehey had endured.

  Hearing all this, Edrik’s remark about h still being in its infancy made even more seher worlds had already advahrough tens of thousands of years ress and battles.

  Finally, they arrived at the Awakener Associatioer.

  “All right,” Ats thought. “Let’s settle everything here first, then back to building my isnd!”