In the before time, magic was elusive. Those with strong enough spirits could bend elements to their will, and gifted few could see the flow of lights and sensations that others could not.
Sometimes when these beings vanquished enemies, the rush of strength would push those two traits together, melding them together to create elemental mages. No two were alike, the same four elements behaving as different materials under the sculpting of their souls
All of this changed when the system arose, carving the wispy slope into a uniform staircase. Where once mages were mysterious, now their progression could be guessed; and more importantly guided. Magic turned from an art to a science
And with it, levels. Skill acquisition became slow and sure, with every level granting a skill point; the coin of improvement. One could spend their skill points to acquire new skills, advance maximized skills into higher forms, or most complicatedly fuse skills together into new ones. Skills leveled up through use, letting the practitioner know roughly how they stacked up to both their peers and their potential
The rigid costs and progression created a clear structure of tier. The standard forms of magic were tier one, advanced tier two, and expert tier three. After expert fire magic came pyromancy, but few reached that far...
As diversions stalked every tier. Red fire, blue fire, firestorm, ice, deepsea, tsunami, stone, gemstone, earthquake, gas, bluster, and tornado- all of which could branch from a tier 1, 2, or 3 form of magic. And offered significantly more power, in exchange for potential that few could even fill.
As higher forms of a skill take considerably more effort to advance, and the power difference between someone who has diverged their magic and someone who hasn't grows, no one knows what pyromancy becomes. "Advanced pyromancy" is the common theory, but none have a concrete guess at its divergent school
Elemental magic skills could be fused. They had to be at the same place on the same path, or one would overpower the other.
This was in addition to holy and unholy. Almost no one could learn both, but they were much more compatible with the basic elemental magics. Often combining to add "light" or "dark" to their fusion partner, they allowed a bit more potential to those who diverged their magic early
And those are just the basic tier. Plant, poison, mind, space, blood- elements that could not strongly link to anything in the basic four, were rarer and as such less documented. They simply did not show up on everyone's skill list, whereas most people could access at least one form of elemental magic.
Convention said not to double back on elemental skills. Convention said to only fuse two elements at once. Convention said you could only advance so far before retirement; be it by soul fatigue, violence, or simply old age.
Until the dreaded powerflood. The emergence of appraisal.
We, Thaumati, always knew our levels were important. But when one of our holy scholars got their hands on a skill that let them observe other's levels, the world opened up
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Everything had a level, a cap, and in monster's cases a rank. This did not stop at beings who had the system, nor sapiens, not even living beings-- everything from children to chickens to plants to polearms had levels of their own. If it was made by a sentient being, it had a level- corresponding roughly to the skill of Its maker.
Most items did not level up. They were made at their cap, and you got what you got. However magically absorbent material worked into the item raised this cap, and magically conductive material sped the rate at which the item leveled. Items leveled up through usage, that was common knowledge, in stark contrast to how living beings leveled up.
Fighting.
For some, this brought an existential crisis. Made them see themselves as weapons designed by one of the nebulous gods. To others, this brought them purpose. Direction. An increased drive to hunt monsters, push themselves to new heights of power, and bring the materials back to our tower home for building, research, and sustenance
Just as item level caps are materially derived, so too are level caps for living beings. Humans, all-rounders they are, have an even round 100- orcs 110, Goliaths 120, elves 140, and celestials 150. We finish our progression at a tidy 130, but few can even get halfway there.
Goblins have 80, halflings 70, and kobolds 60.
Dwarves however evolve. At a mere level fifty, they bind with a mineral of their choice. Most common are different types of rock, middle of the road are metals, but the truly rich and powerful bind with gems.
Level gain is uneven. Your first 8 level ups are fairly quick, and a rare few double-level, but 9 to 10 is a grind. The pattern then repeats, levels 11 to 19 come quickly, but the road to 20 is even longer.
This is not without its benefits. Every level gives an approximate percent to one's abilities to lift, dodge, endure, and think- compounding as levels rise.
Most beings start leveling with some skills pre-loaded into them, known simply as fundamental skills. They seem to grow easier and have more interesting evolution choices
Every level, those skills gain some progress towards their next level, and this fundamental bonus persists through skill evolution or fusion.
Every 10 levels is known as a breakthrough, having approximately five times the effect of a standard level up and either granting a new skill free of charge, or allowing the user to render one of their own skills fundamental. Or both, if the new skill is low enough in tier
While level gain is a one way trip, this is not true for monsters. At level 5, then doubling thereafter until a threshold no one has deemed it safe to reach, monsters will trade their accumulated power for base power. All their levels for a higher cap.
And of course, keep their skills. While monsters lack a mind complex enough to gain any skill points, they still break through every ten levels- giving them a list full of fundamental skills. Monsters who have the foresight, persistence, or guidance to put off evolving as long as they can tend to be weaker in the short term, but grow higher in the long term
A few dozen individuals emerged scattered across the planet and changed histories. Several had elements we had only heard of in prophecies, one had a boundless well of mana to practise with and simply learned more per spell cast, and all were interested in powering up as quickly as humanly possible.
Skill points are limited for those uninterested in dying. A dozen or so was as many as most people could acquire, and advancing a skill to it's fourth tier took ten of them- but most people didn't even reach that far, instead opting to spend six points on a tier 3 skill and the other six or so on support skills. Quickened casting, mediation, mana compression, magical regeneration, mana perception- some of which advanced or combined to further support the mage
Skills cost an amount equal to their tier to gain, be it from purchase or evolution. Evolution consumes the old skill, and rarely is it worth buying back as the two do not share progress- to train it, you need to handicap yourself to the old skill. Most mages simply lack the precise control, unless they buy the skill for that to
Combining skills multiplies this cost by their quantity. Two tier skills fusing into a tier three? Twice three, resulting in six
And whole our people only gained a skill point every other level, the brightest ones able to keep a steady rate of one for one, these otherworldly people had around twice that amount. They could simply do more with less, leading to breaking much ground. Even the cold, calculating system seems to change, as more advanced mages seem to have new magic types available for purchase, and newer mages with more potential are venturing out into new builds.
One day, we will empower one to defeat the great black armored dragon and bring our tower home to peace. Until then, all we can do is train and defend.
