Author's Destiny in The Novel

Chapter 3 Status Rankings

?Placing one hand on my chin, I quickly skimmed through my status going through the various categories. What [Strength], [Vitality], and [Agility] represented was pretty evident in itself. Strength referred to the maximum amount of power that could be exerted through your muscles and your whole body in general. Vitality could be said to be the durability of your body. Agility was the maximum speed at which your body could move. These stats represented the maximum amounts one could exert without the use of any arts, skills, or miscellaneous items.

Looking at my rank, I noticed it was F. The ranks in this world started from G- once someone awakened. Each major rank was further divided into three. Such as G rank was further divided into [G-], [G], and [G+]. These ranks went all the way up to [SSS+] rank after which it was said that you'd slowly start to evolve once again.

I hadn't written much about the ranks after [SSS+] as my novel was still ongoing and the protagonist had only reached the [SS-] rank himself in the latest chapters. But I had mentioned that after [SSS+] you'd slowly start to shed your Mortality, and get closer to becoming a god yourself. That's right, even Gods existed in this world.

There were 183 Major Gods out there, along with several Minor Gods who numbered in thousands. They further had their own ranks to classify themselves. These Gods were probably ones from other worlds that started to pay attention to Earth 70 years ago. While these Gods didn't directly meddle in the affairs of the 'Mortals', they could still share their powers to other people through blessings.

The source of strength of the Gods was called Divinity. Each God had a different Divinity as each God represented their own different element or path. Divinity had two further subparts, namely Holy and Divine energies. Holy energy was the one given to the believers who worshipped the Gods in the Temples. On the other hand, Divine Energy was the energy that the gods themselves used. Now, the Gods could be said to be collectively classified under the banner of the [Sacred] faction and the [Demonic] faction each of which had 90 Gods in their faction.

If a [Sacred] god blessed an awakened, the person would have Holy Energy, whereas if a [Demonic] god blessed an awakened, or if the awakened contracted himself to a demon, they would possess the Demonic Energy.

Looking back at my status, I thought that for a 16-year-old, my rank was actually pretty good. It could be said that everyone who awakened to Mana and got the system, got all that at the age of 16 years. Even the strongest person at my age would currently be [E-] probably.

After checking out my Talent, I muttered "Not bad hmm.."

A Talent of [B+] didn't mean that I could only rank up to [B+], it just meant that I'd have an easier time getting to that certain rank. Once I achieved the [B+] rank, my progress rate would definitely slow down but not to the point that I couldn't make any progress at all. As long as I worked hard enough for decades, I might even become a [SS] rank myself. It was said that the farther you went up in ranks, the more your lifespan increased. A 100-year-old [A] rank could probably still look the same as a youngster in his early twenties. While this theory was extremely likely to be true, it wasn't confirmed that the lifespan would be boosted massively. This was due to the fact that it had only been 70 years since the 'Mana-Awakening' and [A] ranks could probably easily live for 500 years or even more(it's a speculation).

I raised my eyebrows while looking at my Mana Control which was a subrank above my own. It was very rare for someone's stats to exceed their sub-ranks itself. As for the [Spirit] having it as a sub rank or even two less than your own wasn't a big deal because it was extremely hard in the first place. Spirit here referred to your soul. While you ranked up on the path to becoming a god, you had to continuously improve both, your body and your soul. Charm represented your looks and someone [E+] could be considered as slightly less than average.

Now onto the most troublesome part, Luck. It was something intangible but your Luck most of the times, corresponded to your "Fate" or "Destiny". I remember having luck [F-] before I awakened the memories of my past life. Luck was something that couldn't be increased unless you had some heaven-defying methods. Luck was what decided if you were the Protagonist or if you were simply a worthless extra.

'But why does it not show what my Luck is?', I wondered inwardly.

'I should just let it be for now, it's not like I can do anything about it.'

Now coming on to Affinity, it represented the elements you could use. There were a ton of Elements out there such as Fire, Water, Wind, Ice, Lightning, Darkness, Light, etc. In fact, even Holy and Demonic energies could be considered affinities. Your affinity was fixed from the moment you awakened and very few things could change that. It could be said that every 1 person in 10 had an affinity for an element. Elements such as Lightning, Ice, Light, Darkness, etc were even rarer.

Earth was a relatively common affinity. Luckily, I knew of a method to change my affinities. It was the most overpowered deus ex machina I had planned to add to my novel. While I had added it, I made sure the protagonist never actually got it because my readers had been complaining a lot that the protagonist was already doing pretty well. I agreed with them and so the protagonist never got a chance to use this. One of the things about this overpowered cheat was that it could be used by someone who was [E+] or less in rank.

"I guess I should take this for myself hmm."

Don't misunderstand me, this wasn't because I was someone who was too afraid to change the plot and lose the knowledge of the future or something. It was just because, 'If I can actually get strong, then why the hell not?'

The professions were basically akin to a class you could use in RPG games. They were divided into the ranks: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Expert, Master, and finally Zenith. Each rank other than Zenith was further subdivided from 1 to 9 stars which represented your proficiency in your current Profession rank. Professions were mostly acquired from performing similar actions. If a person wielded a sword for a long time then he could become a Swordsman. Once someone's proficiency went up to 9 stars, all the way from 1 star, they then try breaking through to the next rank of that same class through a moment of enlightenment.

Cultivation Arts or Arts in short are ways to circulate your mana internally in a specific manner that would let you use strength further beyond the base strength of your rank. There existed Arts for Mana itself and then those which utilized affinities. Most of the Arts which utilized affinities only taught the user how to use their affinities in a specific manner rather than circulate mana imbued with their elemental energies in their body. These usually cost an inexplicable amount of money that only the rich could afford.

Skills could be classified broadly into Active and Passive skills. These skills could either be obtained from Skillbooks which started dropping off in dungeons or could be acquired by oneself if one mastered the way to do it.

While thinking about all this, I had also taken a shower, something I really needed after sweating a lot during the memory transfer.

Once I was done, I grabbed some cash and my smartwatch and left my home.

'I should probably get that overpowered cheat as soon as I can, so I could start training seriously. The main plot will start a year from now in the [Arcadia] academy which is also the first-ranked academy in the whole nation. It seems that I'm of the same age as the protagonist and the other main cast so there isn't any harm in getting admitted into the academy after all. I won't try to meddle much into the plot but if a need arises then I wouldn't hesitate to do so either because I couldn't honestly care less about the plot. Maybe I should also try making some connections with the main cast huh? A lot of them are rich kids of the leaders of those top clans so there's no harm in getting close to them right? Heh'.

I smirked while thinking of ways to earn easy money by scammi- I mean making "trades" with certain people with the help of my future knowledge. I was a very honorable man after all *cough*. Let's leave it at that.